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INDISCRETIONS OF 
THE NAVAL CENSOR 

SIR DOUGLAS BROWNRIGG 



INDISCRETIONS 

OF 

THE NAVAL CENSOR 

BY 

REAR-ADMIRAL 

SIR DOUGLAS BROWNRIGG, Bt. 



niUSTRATED 




NEW XSlr YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



J] (,3 

.15 1 



COPYRIGHT, .1920, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



m -3 iij20 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©CI.A566905 



TO THE 

ROYAL NAVY 

WHICH I HAVE LOVED FOR THIRTY-NINE YEARS 



PREFACE 

I HAVE been induced by some people for wbom I 
have a high regard, and in some cases even affec- 
tion, to attempt to set down some of my recollec- 
tions of the four and a half strenuous years of my 
service as Chief Censor at the Admiralty during 
the late War. 

I am painfully aware that in the pages that fol- 
low there are to be found 

(1) No trace of literary merit; that is a gift 
which but few naval officers are so fortu- 
nate as to possess. 

(2) A deplorable lack of continuity and hence 
no ** construction'' in the trivial narrative. 
That is due to the fact that I never kept a 
diary for two reasons: firstly, it was too 
dangerous to do so, and, secondly, I was 
too dead tired to have any inclination to 
write when the day's work was done. To 
say that I now regret this omission is to put 
it very mildly. 

Now that it is all over I realise how fortunate 
I was to have such an interesting job and I grate- 
fully acknowledge the consideration I received 
from all the high Admiralty officers under whom I 
nerved, from many members of the Press, from 

vii 



PREFACE 

authors, artists and photographers (both moving 
and still) in carrying out my duties. My reward 
is that I feel I have more friends among that sec- 
tion of the community than I had before the War, 
and if I may judge from the many letters I have 
received from them they appreciated my efforts to 
help them and realised that I never desired to 
hinder them. 

I do not feel disposed to apologise for the 
launching of this record, as the public, unlike me, 
who during my term of service had to read any 
and everything that came before me in proof form, 
need not wade through the following pages. 




N.B. — ^I gratefully acknowledge valuable help 
kindly given me by Mr. Archibald Hurd in the 
final stages of preparing the book for press, and 
I need not assure his many admirers that he is in 
no way responsible for its literary style. 



vm 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTBB PAGB 

I The Establishment op the Naval Censorship 15 

II How THE News Game of the Battles of Coronel 

AND THE Falkland Islands 33 

III Problems of Publicity and Propaganda . . 46 

IV The Battle of Jutland 62 

V The Death of Lord Kitchener 74 

VI Educating the Public 78 

VII Go-operation with Other Departments . . 94 

VIII Zeebrugge and the Censorship 108 

IX Authors, Publishers and Some Others . . . 118 

X Press Men of Allied Countries 136 

XI Visitors to the Grand Fleet 154 

XII Artists and the Naval War 171 

XIII Censoring Naval Letters 198 

XIV Wireless and War News 206 

XV Odds and Ends 213 

XVI A Censor's "Holidays" 239 

XVII Last Days of the Censorship 271 

Illustrations 289 

Index 303 



IX 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Rbab-Admibal Sib Douglas Bbownriqg, Bt. Frcmtispiece 

With the Gkanb Fleet: SHiPsAsTBEN,H.M.S.i4GjArcojr«y 

A.m> UMB. Benbow 289 

H.M. The King with the Gband Fleet: Thb King 

Saluting (Showing the Censor's markings) .... 290 

H.M. The King Saluting 291 

With the Beitish Navy in Wab-time: Evening in the 

NobthSea 292 

Nets and Mines to Stbafe U-Boats ...... 293 

H.M. The King Visiting the Gband Fleet .... 294 

H.M. The King on Boabd a Supeb-Dbeadnaught . . 295 

The Naval Censob at Wobk 296 

Motob Launches in Habboue Awaiting theib Houb to 

GoonPatbol 297 

H.M.S. J5^i\rBOTr IN Tow 298 

A Battleship's Band 299 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE 
NAVAL CENSOR 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE 
NAVAL CENSOR 

CHAPTER I 

THB ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NAVALi CBNSOESHIP 

Acceptance of the appointment in the spring of 1914 — Emer- 
gency arrangements on the outbreak of war — Organisa- 
tion at the Admiralty — The birth of the Press Bureau — 
Eelations with the Sea Lords and Mr. Winston Churchill 
' — ^Right of the Censor to be acquainted with secret mes- 
sages — Conmaunications between the Chief Censors at 
War Office and Admiralty — The Trade Division of the 
Admiralty War Staff — Captain Richard Webb and Com- 
mander Leverton Harris — Mr. Churchill in bed — ^Mr. 
Churchill and the Dardanelles — The first official naval 
photographer — ^Relations with Prince Louis of Batten- 
berg and Lord Fisher. 

When I retired from the Navy in January, 1913, 
I was invited to sign a paper stating whether I 
would volunteer for service in the event of mo- 
bilisation for war, and, if so, whether afloat or 
ashore. I said that I would volunteer for service 
afloat, and thought no more about it. 

I had entered the Navy in 1881, and had seen 
some fighting in the Soudan, had served in the 

15 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Naval Intelligence Department at the Admiralty, 
as well as at Tokio as Naval Attache, and had had 
a good deal of sea experience of one kind and 
another. But for family reasons I decided to re- 
tire, and I came ashore, thinking never again to 
have anything to do with the Navy. Who in 1913 
had any idea of what was going so soon to hap- 
pen? I will be honest. I hadn't. I was not 
among the prophets, and am content to belong to 
the small minority who had not foretold the war 
and all its wonders and horrors. 

In the spring of 1914 I was asked, in the event 
of mobilisation, would I accept the appointment 
of Chief Censor of Radio-Telegraphy. I an- 
swered that I was entirely at their lordships' dis- 
posal, and in a week's time I received the appoint- 
ment of Chief Censor of Radio-Telegraphy, with 
instructions to go to the Admiralty from time to 
time to make and keep myself acquainted with the 
progress of radio-telegraphy in the United King- 
dom. I went during June and July, and read the 
various handbooks on the subject ; and when, dur- 
ing the middle and towards the end of July, it be- 
came increasingly evident that war might break 
out, I reviewed the situation in so far as it con- 
cerned my own appointment and came to the con- 
clusion that I could not possibly do the work sin- 
gle-handed. 

On the Friday before the outbreak of war, there- 
fore, I telegraphed to two officers (Commander 
Thomas Crease and Lieutenant Cyprian Bridge), 

16 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

who were indirectly connected with me in the busi- 
ness world, and asked them to lunch with me the 
next day at the Naval and Military Club. They 
came, and I put the situation before them, after 
which, having looked at the books and office and 
considered various details, they agreed to act as 
my assistants. Then I sent them both away for 
the week-end, and remained on duty myself. On 
that memorable Saturday, August 1, all our radio 
stations were placed under control, and messages 
for censorship thereafter came pouring in night 
and day. 

There was no staff, so we assembled a body of 
clerks, all experts at shorthand and typewriting, 
drawn from the associated firms of which we had 
special knowledge, Messrs. Cammell Laird and the 
Fairfield Shipbuilding Company; and these men 
immediately sorted themselves out into four 
shifts, covering the twenty-four hours, and ar- 
ranged their meal-relief and so on between them- 
selves. They saved the situation for me, and their 
single-mindedness and devotion to their arduous 
duties fully justified me in forwarding to their two 
firms, on August 25, 1914, a message circulated by 
the First Lord of the Admiralty five days previ- 
ously, to the Admiralty staff, expressing **his 
great satisfaction at the excellent work done 
by them during the period of strain involved in 
the mobilisation of the Fleet for war. The First 
Lord considers that the manner in which all de- 
partments have responded to the call made upon 

17 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

them has been admirable. This expression of ap- 
preciation is thoroughly concurred in by all the 
members of the Board/' 

I am anticipating events, however. When Sun- 
day dawned it was upon a day of unforgettable ex- 
citement. It was still uncertain on the following 
day whether we should go to war or not, though 
the die, as we now know, had already been cast 
by Germany, and, throughout the country, the 
great mass of the people was enjoying the beau- 
tiful August Bank Holiday. At the Admiralty 
the tension was such, however, that nobody who 
was there will ever forget it. 

I was now trying to organise the proper dis- 
tribution of the hundreds of messages that were 
flooding in from all the radio stations, at each of 
which I had a staff of censors, ten in all, I think. 
The Trade Division of the Admiralty War Staff, 
though still small, was in a state of rapid expan- 
sion, and it must be remembered that it was upon 
this division that the safety of our immense mer- 
chant service largely depended, since it was the 
recipient of intelligence from all parts of the 
world of the doings of our own shipping and the 
whereabouts and movements of hostile vessels, 
^n those days it was snowed under by rumours. 
The Operations Division was also growing swift- 
ly, and it will be readily understood that the sift- 
ing, censoring, and circulation of messages soon 
became a pretty stiff job. 

During that Sunday, Monday, Tuesday — the day 

18 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

on which war was declared at midnight, Wednes- 
day, and Thursday I was working in my room for 
twenty-two hours a day, my scheme of rest being 
to go away about six p. m. to my bedroom at my 
club, strip and go to bed till a quarter to eight, 
get up, have a hot bath and shave, and go back 
again to the office. In the first week or so I had 
all my meals there. 

It was on the Wednesday night about nine 
o'clock that I met the Assistant Secretary of the 
Admiralty, Mr. (now Sir) Oswyn Murray, in the 
passage outside my little room looking over the 
quadrangle off Whitehall, and he asked me if I 
would ^'take on the Press.'' With regard to this 
a Consultative Committee had some time before 
been set up by the Admiralty and War Office, and 
it had done good work, supported with fine pa- 
triotism by the proprietors, editors, and staffs of 
the principal newspapers. But actual censorship 
of the Press ! That was another matter, requiring 
courtesy and tact. However, I told Mr. Murray 
that I would undertake it, but, at the same time, 
I said that I must have a quieter room, as the roar 
of the traffic in Whitehall made the use of a 'phone 
extremely difficult and very tiring, and I realised 
that the 'phone would be my salvation. He agreed, 
and suggested to me that I should occupy Eoom 
37, an offer I gladly accepted, as that room over- 
looked the inner quadrangle, and was perfectly 
quiet. It turned out, however, that it was for six 
months or so even more noisy than the other room, 

19 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

as a series of galvanised iron buildings (known as 
**tin tabernacles'^) were being erected for the ac- 
commodation of tke increased Admiralty staff 
necessitated by tbe war. A really infernal din 
raged night and day throughout that time. But 
this was not Mr. Oswyn Murray's fault, and he 
was most helpful and considerate on all occa- 
sions, and I could always rely on him for wise 
counsel in any difficulty. 

The change was rapidly effected, and it was in 
this room that we first issued communiques to the 
Press. These were limited to seven copies, dis- 
tributed respectively to the four British agencies, 
Renter's, Central News, Exchange Telegraph 
Company, and Press Association, to two Ameri- 
can agencies, and, I believe, to one Overseas Do- 
minion agency. The number was limited to 
seven, partly on account of lack of accommodation 
in the office, and partly because the typewriter we 
had would not take off more than about nine legi- 
ble copies, two being retained for our own ref- 
erence! Our facilities in those days were very 
modest ! \ 

From these small beginnings sprang the Press 
Bureau, which was first installed under Sir F. E. 
Smith (now Lord Birkenhead) in an old part of 
the Admiralty, viz., 40, Charing Cross, where we 
used to supply them with matter for communiques 
and public information, and whither they had 
taken some of my assistants, naval officers who 
had volunteered or been recalled for service. 

20 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

The growth of the Press Bureau was not accom- 
plished without some '^puU devil, pull baker'' be- 
tween them and me. They wished to break away 
completely from all naval control, while I took the 
line that, though the naval side of the Bureau was 
competent to censor most material, it was not in a 
position to know what could be safely **passed" 
and what must on no account be made public. I 
therefore insisted that reference should in the last 
resort be made to me, as representing the Ad- 
miralty view and being in the closest touch with 
the Sea Lords and the hourly reported course of 
naval events. For my position at the Admiralty 
I was very fortunately equipped, as it so happened 
that I was of that sort of seniority and age as to 
know all the members of the Board well, and 
many of them intimately as personal friends. It 
was therefore easy for me to establish the prac- 
tice of having free access to each and all of them, 
and I was thus able to settle any question referred 
to me from the naval side of the Press Bureau by 
going to whichever Sea Lord was concerned, which 
meant absence of delay and freedom of red tape. 

This applied equally to the First Lord, Mr. 
Winston Churchill, who, though he was extremely 
busy and hard-worked, usually spared time to see 
me and settle points that I wished to put before 
him, and if during the day his secretaries, exer- 
cising a wise discretion, headed me off, I invari- 
ably succeeded in tripping him up at 1 :30 a. m., 
when he had finished his work and was off to bed, 

21 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

as lie would look into my room and give me the 
decisions I was after. 

This freedom of access to all heads of depart- 
ments I enjoyed throughout the war, and I can- 
not but think that it accounted for whatever meas- 
ure of success I achieved, if that is a term that can 
properly be used in connection with such an un- 
popular institution as a censorship ! At all events, 
the decisions given had ample sanction behind 
them. They were always carefully considered, 
and were invariably approached from the point of 
view of concealing as little as possible and allow- 
ing publication of as much news as might safely 
be given to a hungry Press and an anxious public. 

The Directors of the Press Bureau tried on sev- 
eral subsequent occasions to sever the connection 
between the Favy Room in the Bureau — ^which was 
subsequently housed in the Royal United Service 
Institution — and my office, and on every occasion, 
and under each Home Secretary, and finally by 
a decision of the War Cabinet, they failed to 
achieve their object ; and I cannot help repeating 
that I think it fortunate that the direct communi- 
cation between the Press and the Admiralty, via 
the Navy Room of the Press Bureau, continued to 
the end. 

Nov/ let me return to the early days of the War. 
The stenographers whom we had borrowed from 
the firms already mentioned had in due course to 
return to their ordinary work, and so it became 
necessary to recruit a staff of stenographers of 

22 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

our own, and we were uniformly fortunate in the 
men that we thus gathered together. They worked 
(three of them) in twelve-hour shifts — ten a.m. to 
ten p.m., and vice versa — twelve hours on and 
twenty-four off for many months, until the work 
became so heavy and exacting that a fourth man 
had to be taken on, thus enabling each of the clerks 
in rotation to get one week of day duty, i.e., from 
ten a.m. to eight p.m., and to be free that week 
from night duty. That is to say, that, once in 
three weeks, each of them had what navy men call 
a week of ** nights in." Later on we had again to 
add to our staff, having three men always on duty 
besides the usual night duty shifts. From the day 
war started the office never closed night or day — 
not a bad record ! 

At an early stage I decided that practically all 
secret cables and messages of all sorts ought to 
be sent to me, as, if I was not in possession of all 
facts, I could not censor intelligently. In the very 
early days of the war secrecy was a bit of an ob- 
session at times, and many matters were kept so 
**pink"^ — secret — that many who were closely 
concerned did not know what was going on; and 
it was to get myself admitted into the sacred ring 
of those who received all ^^ pinks" that I strug- 
gled, though I must say I did not meet with very 
serious opposition. I won my point, in fact, with 

*So called from the colour of the paper on which these ** secret" 
telegrams were circulated. 

23 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

considerable ease, and my work was all the easier 
and more satisfactory thereafter. 

One branch of the work connected with my office 
was that connected with the sifting, circulating, 
and giving of decisions on commercial messages 
intercepted both by the cable censors and the wire- 
less telegraph censors. As is well known, the 
cable censorship all over the world is conducted 
by the War Office ; and in order to make communi- 
cation between the chief censors at the War Office 
and Admiralty complete and to get decisions 
promptly, a post captain was appointed as naval 
adviser to the chief censor at the War Office. It 
was this officer (Captain John H. Trye) who com- 
municated directly with me on a private 'phone 
from his room at the War Office to mine. Any 
matters that could be settled on the 'phone were 
done in that way, but, in addition, some 700 or 
800 typed copies of commercial cables were sent 
by that officer to me daily for decision or refer- 
ence to other departments, or for copies to be 
circulated among those who were interested in the 
contents of the messages. For nine months I han- 
dled these messages myself, and then I got an- 
other officer. Commander the Hon. Gerald Digby, 
to come and take it over and do nothing else — a 
dull, thankless task — and I am very grateful to 
him for sticking to it for three and a half years. 

The method of handling this business was to 
refer doubtful matters to various experts who 
were attached to Captain — now Rear Admiral — 

24 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

Eichard Webb, E.N., the Director of the Trade 
Division. This officer, of whom not much was 
heard by the public, was one of those who worked 
like a nigger for three years without a break un- 
til he got away to a battle-cruiser in the Grand 
Fleet. But Lloyd ^s and the shipping interests 
could give a satisfactory account of his work. 
Among other valuable traits in his character, he 
had the knack of attracting to him men of rare 
ability in the varied walks of commercial life. 
Among those with whom I was frequently in con- 
tact through the nature of my work were Mr. 
Bilborough, who dealt with all questions of in- 
surance, and Commander F. Leverton Harris, 
R.N.V.E., who dealt with all questions of cop- 
per and beef and other imports. He seldom 
left his office before two a.m. He had a pas- 
sion for work, and no one handled it with 
more rapidity and accuracy. Though I was 
glad to see his great ability recognised by his 
promotion to Assistant Minister of Blockade, 
it was a bitter blow to me and to all his 
friends and admirers that his successful pol- 
icy for the restriction of enemy trade and the 
vigorous enforcement of the blockade should have 
been rewarded by his being dropped overboard at 
the moment when the result of his work culmi- 
nated in the Germans being compelled to ask for 
the Armistice which finished the war; his official 
ruin was brought about through the machina- 
tions of a ^^ party'' which, as some newspaper 

25 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

wittily remarked, could take itself to Westminster 
in a side-car. He did fine service for tlie coun- 
try. 

Presently, wlien the War Trade Intelligence 
Department came to be set up, some of tlie work 
of sorting and sifting gradually fell to that de- 
partment, but the circulation of messages con- 
taining information of use to Admiralty depart- 
ments still remained in our hands. 

In fact, from the day we started down to the 
end, when the ether was thick with Armistice mes- 
sages and no cables were coming through from 
Germany, our office was a distributing centre for 
all manner of information on every conceivable 
topic! That may seem curious as part of the 
duty of one who is supposed to have existed to 
suppress information. 

During the Dardanelles days, for instance, we 
were very busy indeed. Mr. Churchill naturally 
took a very keen interest in the whole proceed- 
ings, and he said to me one day, **For this busi- 
ness I am Chief Censor, not you." The result 
was that I used, as I mentioned above, to see the 
last of him at 1 :30 a.m., and I would take him the 
cable copies and radios that had come in during 
the night, properly t3rped out, and be by his bed- 
side at 9 :15 a.m. He presented a most extraordi- 
nary spectacle, perched up in a huge bed, with the 
whole of the counterpane littered with despatch 
boxes, red and all colours, and a stenographer 
sitting at the foot — Mr. ChurchiU himself with an 

26 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

enormous Corona Corona in his mouth, a glass of 
warm water on the table by his side, and a writ- 
ing-pad on his knee. On one occasion he had a 
badly swollen face, and with two turns of a flan- 
nel bandage round it and a scanty lock escaping 
here and there, represented a truly extraordinary 
picture. The Corona Corona, however, was still 
there ! 

Here I would like to say that, barring one 
'* bust-up'' that I had with Mr. Churchill — in Sep- 
tember, 1914, I think — I never had anything but 
pleasant relations with him. I could not help ad- 
miring his appetite for work and his pluck in tak- 
ing decisions. He was indeed a whale for work, 
and I daresay a little thoughtless of others, but 
so far as I am concerned I can say that I was 
sorry to say good-bye to him when he left the Ad- 
miralty, and I enjoyed serving under him. He 
was, of course, a master of language and had a 
-flair for framing communiques, and I still have 
some of his which have never seen the light and 
are, to my mind, masterpieces. He was also a 
bit of a gambler — i.e., he would hold on to a bit 
of bad news for a time on the chance of getting a 
bit of good news to publish as an offset, and I 
must say that it not infrequently came off! On 
the other hand, there were days when it did not, 
and then there was a sort of *^ Black Monday'' at- 
mosphere about — a bad *^ settling day" sort of 
look on all our faces. 

After he left I always pleaded for the imme- 

27 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

diate publication of disasters, or, at any rate, that 
they should be made known as soon as the number 
of casualties had been reported and the relatives 
informed; and this soon became more or less the 
established practice. 

I well remember taking up to Mr. Churchill the 
messages reporting the failure of the attack by 
the fleet on the Dardanelles and how the fleet had 
withdrawn owing to the sinking of so many ships. 
He looked up at me and said: ** You can't do this 
sort of job without casualties; they are having 
scores of hundreds of casualties on the "Western 
Front!'' There is no doubt he badly wanted the 
attempt renewed on the second day, and I believe 
it is now admitted that it would have been suc- 
cessful had it been undertaken. Perhaps, in ret- 
rospect, the chief tragedy of the war was due to 
the lack of pluck and determination by those re- 
sponsible at home; and Mr. Churchill was not 
among them. 

It was over the Dardanelles business that an 
official photographer was first employed, Ernest 
Brooks, a most gallant and delightful little man, 
who had previously been round the world with 
the King, and had done many other jobs. This 
started a fresh line of work, every one of his pic- 
tures passing through my hands before being mar- 
keted or issued to the Press. Brooks remained out 
till the Gallipoli force was withdrawn, when he 
wired me asking for instructions. I put forward 
a suggestion that the Commanders-in-Chief in the 

28 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

Mediterranean and of the Grand Fleet should be 
consulted as to his retention, but nothing came of 
it, and he was lost to us and was, of course, 
snapped up by the Army. I subsequently had to 
go on my hands and knees to the Minister of In- 
formation (Lord Beaverbrook) to borrow him. I 
have never ceased regretting our losing hold of 
him. 

A year or so later I was authorised to com- 
municate direct with Commanders-in-Chief and 
senior naval officers on all matters concerned with 
my department, and had I been so authorised, then 
we should, I am confident, never have lost Brooks, 
for the little man was liked wherever he had 
served, and he never fell foul of anybody. 

That, at any rate, was the inauguration of the 
photographic side of my office. Every plate sent 
home by Brooks we turned over to the Central 
News photographic section, run by Mr. George 
Knight, M.B.E., who throughout the war handled 
every single photograph that we had. He in 
turn issued them to a rota of photographic pub- 
lishing agencies, and these supplied the Press, 
via the Press Bureau, and the net proceeds were 
remitted to the Admiralty. Everybody was thus 
kept sweet, and I think the business gave satis- 
faction. 

It was no slight business keeping track of all 
the artistic and other efforts of those who were 
permitted to take photographs of naval objects. 
Soon after the war broke out it was decided that 

29 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

no pictures of British ships of war should be 
sold by anybody, and an embargo was placed upon 
all the familiar books like **The Naval Annual," 
''Jane's Fighting Ships,'' the ''Naval Pocket 
Book," the "Navy League Annual," and so on. 
The authorities were determined that nothing 
should appear which could by any chance assist 
the enemy. When, later on, it was decided that 
it was desirable to let the public have such pic- 
tures of ships of naval incidents as could not bene- 
fit the Germans, it was my task to see that they 
were innocuous. By that time all sorts of new 
"gadgets" had been introduced into the Fleet 
about which we wanted the enemy to know noth- 
ing. Consequently a lot of the photographs con- 
tained dangerous matter, and they had to be 
manipulated. I would receive proofs and exam- 
ine them, marking in some cases ships on the 
horizon to be omitted, and in others sighting 
hoods, paravanes, range-finder towers, fire-con- 
trol stations, and other distinctive features to be 
taken out of them. Mr. Knight and his staff 
showed great ingenuity in faking these pictures, 
as the illustrations which are reproduced in this 
book show. 

As everybody knows, when the war broke out 
Prince Louis of Battenberg was the First Sea 
Lord, and all business with him was very easily 
and pleasantly carried on. At that time he sat 
in the old board-room, next door to which was my 
oflSoe, and hie naval assistant. Captain T. P. H. 

30 



ESTABLISHMENT OF NAVAL CENSORSHIP 

Beamish, occupied the room just across the pas- 
sage from us, whilst the Chief of Staff (Admiral 
Frederick Doveton Sturdee) and the Director of 
Operations (Admiral Arthur Leveson) were in 
some of the first-floor rooms of the old Admiralty 
House, all close to my office. I was therefore able 
to obtain decisions from each and all of these 
officers quickly and without having to search the 
building for them. 

At the end of October, 1914, i.e., immediately 
before Admiral Cradock's squadron was destroyed 
in action with von Spec off Coronel, Lord Fisher 
came back to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord, 
and took Commander Crease, who had been work- 
ing with me since the beginning of the war, as his 
naval assistant, while about the same time Lieu- 
tenant Bridge left to go to the Naval Division. 
I therefore had to look about for another assist- 
ant, and I was fortunately able to get Paymaster- 
Commander E. H. Shearme, who had been em- 
ployed at the Central Telegraph Office as a cen- 
sor, and had then been transferred to the naval 
room at the Press Bureau. He thus came armed 
with a working knowledge of both these other de- 
partments of censorship, and his help was in- 
valuable to me down to the end of the censorship 
four years after, with the exception of a short 
interval during which he filled the post of Pay- 
master of Contingencies. It is impossible for me 
to rate the value of his assistance too highly, and 
I am glad to acknowledge it here. 

31 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Lord Fisher was no stranger to me. I had been 
his Flag Commander when he was Commander- 
in-Chief at Portsmouth eleven years before. I 
knew his methods, and fully appreciated that 
things had to move with a * ^ snap, ' ^ and that in or- 
der to keep on terms with him one had to remem- 
ber the maxim, ' ' Get on or get out. ' ' 

One of the first things I had to do for him was 
to send long cables en clair and in extenso to 
President Wilson, Prince Henry of Prussia, and 
Admiral von Tirpitz, all dealing with a request 
for the release of his daughter, Mrs. Neeld, and 
her husband. Rear- Admiral Neeld, who had been 
detained in Germany on the outbreak of war, 
where they were undergoing a *^cure.'' These 
cables presently achieved their object^ — thanks, I 
believe, to the representations of the President of 
the United States. 

My next clear recollection of Lord Fisher's 
term of office was the chronic hustle and bustles 
in the passages. He had placed himself in the 
First Sea Lord^s room in the west block, i.e., at 
the other end of the building from my office, and 
he must have often regretted it, for he had to go 
trapesing down that long corridor many, many 
times a day to get to the Chief of Staff's room 
and to the Map Room beyond. I felt sorry for him 
when, towards the end of the day, he came along 
in company with the First Lord, who, of course, 
was fresh as paint, and seemingly never thought 
that his old First Sea Lord might be tired! 

32 



CHAPTER II 

HOW THE NEWS CAME OF THE BATTLES OF CORONEL 
AND THE FALKLAND ISLANDS 

Admiral Cradock and the "immortal memory" — The Battle of 
Coronel — Admiral von Spec's version — Captain Luce's 
message — Lord Fisher and the Battle Cruisers — A sup- 
pressed communique to the Press — Wanderings of the 
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau — Necessity for precautions in 
convoying troops — Admiral Cradock's probable reason for 
attacking — Disposition of forces after Coronel — Depar- 
ture of Vice- Admiral Sturdee with the Invincible and 
Inflexible — His final instructions — Action off the Falk- 
land Islands. 

After Rear- Admiral Cradock left the Falklands 
on his way to Coronel I, at all events, heard but 
little more of him. We knew that he had passed 
through the Magellan Straits and was busy on the 
west coast of South America, coaling where he 
could, steaming hard, landing on the off-chance 
of obtaining any news of von Spec and his ships, 
and very probably getting false news from many 
of the German settlers down in those parts. 

Cable communication was poor and radio prac- 
tically non-existent, so it was not surprising that 
we were all somewhat in the dark as to what was 
going on. The last definite news from him was, 

33 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

I think, a message saying that lie would send 
ashore for cables at Coronel on such and such a 
date. This interested me, as I had recently passed 
a private cable out to him from a friend in this 
country, which was evidently to remind him that 
he was to keep up what perhaps was an estab- 
lished habit between them, namely, to drink to the 
memory of Lord Nelson on October 21 — the words 
used were : * * To the immortal memory. ' ' It was 
sent on its way, and I only hope that it reached 
him so that he may have been cheered by the 
knowledge of the sympathy of this friend thou- 
sands of miles away ; and likely enough it was an 
inspiration to him as he went into action on that 
fateful Sunday evening. 

The news of the action and its dramatic ending 
came to us from various sources, in little snip- 
pets, rumours from this port and the other on 
that far-away coast, and we were all sad and per- 
plexed. Then came fairly precise information 
from our Consul at Valparaiso giving von Spec's 
version, upon receipt of which, the outstanding 
fact being seemingly no longer in doubt, the bit- 
ter story was given out to the public ; the evidence 
on which it was based — von Spec's message to 
Germany — was plainly stated. 

It was not till some ten days later that we got 
the actual story cabled home by Captain John 
Luce, of his Majesty's ship Glasgow, who had 
taken part in the action till Cradock ordered him 
off, seeing that the Glasgow was no match for 

34 



CORONEL AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

ships of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau type in 
ordinary fair weather, let alone the weather con- 
ditions then prevailing. Captain Luce was able 
to give, and did give, a clear and thrilling account 
of Cradock^s last day; of his gallant signal, **Am 
going to attack the enemy now'^; of his orders to 
the Glasgow to clear out, and of the flames of 
glory in which the old Good Hope sank with her 
fine crew and magnificent Admiral. 

A few days before this news reached us Lord 
Fisher had succeeded Prince Louis of Battenberg 
as First Sea Lord, and I very well remember the 
sending off of the cables which ordered the two 
battle-cruisers, Invincible and Inflexible — then 
with the Grand Fleet — to come south, and the fur- 
ther messages which flatly declined to listen to 
any reasons for delay at Plymouth — ^where they 
were preparing for their long voyage to the south 
— stating bluntly that, whether this or that fitting 
was completed or not, the ships were positively 
to sail on the date and at the time ordered. The 
workmen, if necessary, were to be taken to sea 
in the ships to finish their work en route to the 
south. Under no considerations was the depar- 
ture of the ships to be delayed. On that point 
Lord Fisher was inflexible. The ships left as ar- 
ranged, and, fortunately for this country, the 
imperious and forceful old man had his way. 

This order of his had a curious sequel apart 
from, though incidental to, the Falkland Islands 
battle. The ships had to sail, taking with them 

35 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

some workmen and special officials belonging to 
Messrs. Vickers who were employed on some of 
the gunnery fittings. This staff was in charge of 
Lionel Leveson, a brother of the then Director of 
Operations at the Admiralty, and he — a civilian — 
went through the Falklands battle and returned 
to England, having been present in a sea battle, 
whereas his brother, a Rear-Admiral, who had 
been nearly thirty-one years at sea, had never 
seen a shot fired in action.^ 

Well I remember the excruciating anxiety of 
the evening (I think it was December 8) when Ad- 
miral Leveson came to my room, and, calling me 
outside, told me of the receipt of the first of Stur- 
dee's cables, **I am engaging German ships," and 
then we had to wait. Leveson and I both found 
we could not do any work. The excitement was 
too great. It must be remembered that we had 
had our bad times. There had been a goodish 
number of losses during those first four months 
of war. The morning on which the Rogue, Abow- 
kir, and Cressy were sunk was, for example, a bit 
of a facer. So was the day on which the tidings 
came of the loss of the Audacious; whilst the news 
of the fight otf Coronel, though it had come in bit 
by bit, was pretty heartbreaking. We were in a 
state, therefore, of peculiar tension ; but presently 
the blessed news came in that we had sunk all the 

*In the Battle of Jutland, later on, Eear-Admiral Arthur C. 
Leveson was in command of the 2nd Battle Squadron of the Grand 
Fleet, with his flag flying in the battleship Orion. 

36 



CORONEL AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

enemy's sMps but one,^ and tlie relief was tre- 
mendous, the feeling of elation glorious. **Well, 
thank God/' we all said, *^Kit Cradook is 
avenged. ' ' 

That evening Crease and I left the old Ad- 
miralty entrance at about 8 :30 to go and get some 
dinner. It was pouring oats and dogs, and we had 
a taxi, and the hall porter was so elated that he 
jammed my middle finger in the door of the taxi 
as he slammed it to. I believe he will long re- 
member what I said to him; and even though I 
spent the evening at White's that hall porter 
spoilt it (and the finger) for me! 

The following communique to the Press was 
prepared by Mr. Churchill on Christmas Day, and 
actually got as far as the Press Bureau, when my 
assistant (Paymaster-Commander Shearme) got 
peremptory orders to rescue it and stop its get- 
ting out to the Press. I believe some editors 
pleaded for its publication, but it died still-born, 
the reason being that Lord Fisher told Mr. 
Churchill that if it were published, he, the First 
Sea Lord, would resign ! 

It may now be given, however, and I append it : 

**It is now possible to state the salient points in 
the operations which ended in the destruction of 
the German Pacific squadron. 

**The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sailed from 
Shangai on July 31, and on August 5, immediately 

*The light cruiser Dresden escaped, but waa rounded up and 
sunk on March 14, 1915, hear Juan Fernandez Island. 

37 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

after tlie declaration of war, they were reported 
as being near the Solomon Islands. They were 
subsequently reported at New Guinea on August 
7, and coaling at Ponape, Caroline Islands, on 
August 9. After this they disappeared, and com- 
plete uncertainty as to their point of reappear- 
ance prevailed. Nearly six weeks later, on Sep- 
tember 14, they were reported as having been off 
Samoa, which had in the meanwhile been captured 
by a New Zealand expedition, and was flying the 
British flag. All the small vessels which had car- 
ried or convoyed that expedition had dispersed, 
the conquered colony was adequately garrisoned, 
and the German vessels sailed without making 
any attack. They were next heard of on Septem- 
ber 22 as having bombarded Papeete and sunk the 
French gunboat ZeUe. After this they were never 
definitely located until they touched Valparaiso 
after the action of Coronel on November 1. 

** During all this period the naval forces of the 
Allies in the Pacific and Indian Oceans were en- 
gaged primarily in the transport of large numbers 
of troops for the European theatre of the war, 
and secondly, in a number of expeditions against 
German colonies and possessions, of which- the re- 
duction of Tsing-tau and the capture of Samoa 
and New Guinea were the most important. It was 
necessary in all cases to provide escorts capable 
of meeting the concentrated German squadron 
wherever it should appear. 

**In the early days of September the possibility 

38 



CORONEL AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

of the enemy's squadron crossing the Pacific to 
the American coast or entering the Atlantic had 
to be taken into consideration. Their possible Ob- 
jectives now became very numerous, and during 
the month of September preparations were made 
by the British, Australian, and Japanese navies 
to meet them on the west coast of North America, 
on the west coast of South America, on the east 
coast of South America, and on the South 
African coast, as well as to safeguard all the 
convoys proceeding from Australia, India, and 
the Far East, and to guard Chinese and Australa- 
sian waters. Large as were the naval resources 
at the disposal of the Allies it was not possible 
to form at every point a squadron not only strong 
enough to fight, but fast enough to catch the en- 
emy. Forces, each of which was capable of fight- 
ing the enemy, were, however, disposed at all 
points of potential contact and reached these 
points, or could have reached them, before it was 
possible for the enemy to arrive. 

*^As part of this general disposition, in which 
the Japanese navy took a most important share, 
the Canopus was on September 4 sent from St. 
Vincent to join Eear- Admiral Cradock's flag on 
the South American station. On October 12 Eear- 
Admiral Cradock telegraphed to the Admiralty 
that the indications showed the possibility of the 
Dresden, Leipzig, and Nurnberg joining the 
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and that he had or- 
dered the Canopus to the Falkland Islands, where 

39 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

he intended to concentrate and avoid division of 
forces; and on October 14 their lordships ap- 
proved by telegram Bear- Admiral Cradock's pro- 
posed concentration of the Good Hope, Mon- 
mouth, Canopus, Glasgow, and Otranto for com- 
bined operations. The squadron thus formed was 
amply strong enough to defeat the enemy if at- 
tacked by them. It was not fast enough to force 
an engagement, but, in view of the uncertainty 
as to which part of the world the enemy's squad- 
ron would appear in, it was not possible at that 
time to provide another strong fast ship at that 
particular point. Although the Canopus was an 
old vessel, she was a battleship, and no cruiser 
force, least of all one which had no repairing base 
open to it, would have been likely to come within 
range of her 12-in. guns. By keeping concentrated 
the ^ve ships which he had named, the Bear- Ad- 
miral would have been safe, whether at the Falk- 
lands, in the Straits of Magellan, or on the Chil- 
ean Coast; and although unable immediately to 
bring the enemy to battle, could have constantly 
disturbed their coaling and reprovisioning ar- 
rangements until other fast ships could have 
joined him. These re-enforcements were, of 
course, available from the moment that the Ger- 
man squadron was definitely located on the South 
American coast. 

*^A separate despatch dealing with the action 
ofiP Coronel has been received from the Glasgow, 
and will shortly be published. No authoritative 

40 



CORONEL AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

explanation of the reasons upon which Eear- Ad- 
miral Cradock acted will ever be forthcoming. 
Their Lordships, however, are of opinion that, 
having scouted up the Chilean coast with his cruis- 
ers, and finding himself directly in face of the 
enemy, he decided to attack them with his fast 
ships alone, in the belief that, even if he were de- 
stroyed in the action, he would inflict damage upon 
them which, in the circumstances, would be irre- 
parable and lead to their certain subsequent de- 
struction. This was not an unreasonable hope, 
had the conditions of sea and light been favour- 
able ; and though the Admiralty have no respon- 
sibility for Admiral Cradock 's decision, their 
Lordships consider that it was inspired by the 
highest devotion. 

*^As soon as the impending arrival of the Ger- 
man squadron on the Chilean coast became evi- 
dent through the movements of German colliers 
and other indications, and news of it good enough 
to act on reached the Admiralty, their Lordships 
ordered the squadron on the south-east coast of 
America to re-enforce Admiral Cradock ^s flag; but 
before any such concentration was possible news 
was received that the action of November 1 had 
already been fought, and that the Good Hope and 
Monmouth had been sunk. The loss of these ships 
left the Glasgow^ Otranto, and Canopus, which had 
been left behind by Eear- Admiral Cradock about 
200 miles from the scene of the action, in a posi- 
tion of considerable danger. The Canopus re- 

41 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

ceived orders to proceed to the Falklands to cover 
that colony, which was now exposed to hostile 
attack, and here she remained, in a position in 
which it would certainly not have been worth while 
for the enemy's squadron to molest her, until the 
arrival of Vice-Admiral Sturdee's fleet. The 
Glasgow and Otranto, after escaping from the ac- 
tion, succeeded in making their way to a new point 
of concentration off the Brazilian coast and join- 
ing Rear- Admiral Sturdee's flag on November 11. 
**The action oif Coronel and the location of 
the German squadron off the Chilean coast re- 
quired an entirely new set of dispositions. The 
possible objectives open to the enemy were still 
numerous and varied. But the strength of the 
British Fleet in home waters had been sensibly 
increased since the beginning of the war by the 
addition of new units of the highest power and 
by the withdrawal of some of the battle-cruisers 
from the Mediterranean, rendered possible 
through the complete control of that sea estab- 
lished by the French navy. Five separate squad- 
rons were therefore formed to deal with all con- 
tingencies. A powerful Japanese squadron was 
disposed in Australasian waters in case the en- 
emy should attempt to return across the enor- 
mous expanse of the South Pacific. A squadron 
composed of Japanese, British, and Australian 
ships concentrated off the coast of Mexico, and 
moved down to the Galapagos Islands. A third 
squadron was formed in the West Indies in case 

42 



CORONEL AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

the enemy should come through the Panama Ca- 
nal. A fourth was formed at the Cape of Good 
Hope; and, fifthly, Vice-Admiral Sturdee, with 
the battle-cruisers Invincible and Inflexible, was 
despatched from England to join Eear-Admiral 
Stoddart^s squadron off the Brazilian coast. All 
these squadrons were complete by November 27. 
Meanwhile, the enemy was still reported as re- 
maining off the Chilean coast, and appeared to 
be in some difficulties both with regard to coal and 
supplies. 

'*As soon as Vice-Admiral Sturdee 's fleet was 
concentrated he was directed to search from the 
Argentine coast, coal at the Falkland Islands, 
and then proceed round the Horn and through the 
Straits of Magellan searching for the enemy in 
conjunction with the movements of the British- 
Japanese-Australian squadron moving southward 
from the Galapagos Islands. Both the Galapagos 
Islands and Falklands seemed indicated as likely 
objectives of the enemy. 

**0n December 7 Vice-Admiral Sturdee, with a 
British squadron consisting of the Invincible, In- 
flexible, Carnarvon (flying the flag of Rear-Ad- 
miral A. P. Stoddart), Cornwall, Kent, Glasgow, 
Bristol, and the auxiliary cruiser Macedonia ar- 
rived at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, and be- 
gan to coal. 

**0n the morning of December 8, while that 
operation was still in progress, a report was re- 
ceived from the shore signal station that the Ger- 

43 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

man squadron was in sight. Colliers were at 
once cast ofiP, and the squadron put to sea, with 
the exception of the Bristol and Macedonia, who 
had not got steam for full speed. 

*^The enemy were quite unaware of the com- 
position of the British force, and on (Jiscovering 
its strength endeavoured to escape to the south- 
eastward. A general chase took place. 

**At about 2 p. m. the Invincible and Inflexible, 
on getting within range, engaged the Scharnhorst 
and Gneisenau, while the fast light cruisers Leip^ 
zig, Dresden^ and Nilrnberg, who had scattered, 
were pursued by the Carnarvon, Cornwall, Kent, 
and Glasgow. 

''After about three hours the Scharnhorst, who 
had received many hits on the waterline and was 
on fire, turned over and sank. The Gneisenau 
continued the action until she was little more than 
a wreck, her two foremost funnels gone, the un- 
armoured parts of all decks blown away, and her 
battery guns disabled. Shots had also penetrated 
into her engine and boiler rooms through the ar- 
moured deck, and her fires were out. At about 
7 p.m., two hours after the sinking of the Scharn- 
horst, she foundered. 

''While this action with the heavy ships was in 
progress, the Glasgow had overhauled and en- 
gaged the Leipzig, and before long managed so 
far to reduce her speed as to allow the Cornwall 
to come up and join in the action. The Leipzig 
was set on fire, and sank shortly afterwards. 

44 



CORONEL AND FALKLAND ISLANDS 

*'The Kent, meanwhile, chased and eventually 
sank the Nurnberg, but owing to her wireless hav- 
ing been disabled by a lucky shot, was unable to 
report the fact until the next day. 

*'The Carnarvon, finding that the enemy's light 
cruisers had the speed of her, returned to assist 
in the final stages of the heavy ships' action. 

**The Dresden, who started well ahead of the 
German squadron, continued to increase her dis- 
tance, and finally made good her escape, and is 
still at large. 

**The Bristol and Macedonia, having raised 
steam with all speed, proceeded to sea about an 
hour after the rest of the squadron, and were or- 
dered to deal with the enemy's colliers. They 
sighted two, which they captured and sank. 

*' Every eifort not incompatible with the prose- 
cution of the action was made by the British ves- 
sels to save life. About 200 officers and men were 
rescued from the Gneisenau, and about twenty-five 
from the NUrnherg and Leipzig/' 

That is the story as the First Lord would have 
it told to the public. Nothing can rob Lord Fisher 
of the credit of having engineered that victory, 
nor Sir Frederick Sturdee of the glory of having 
won the only complete victory we had during the 
whole war, and the only victory of annihilation in 
modern history, unless we except the Nile. V 

45 



CHAPTER in 

PROBLEMS OF PUBLICITY AND PBOPAGANBA 

Tire loss of the battleship Audacious — Long hours during the 
Dardanelles campaign — The Harwich cure for bronchitis 
— Good-bye to Mr. Churchill — Mr. Balfour as First Lord 
— The proposal for a naval film — ^Mr. Balfour at the Al- 
hambra without the ballet — Fate of the film in America 
— Sir Henry Jackson as First Sea Lord — His dislike for 
publicity shared by the Navy generally — Mr. Balfour and 
air-raids — Pros and eons as to the publication of losses at 
sea — Co-operation of Lloyd's and Lloyd's Register — 
Threat of a libel action — Sir Graham Greene to the rescue 
— The Zeppelin raid of April 1. 

Shoetly after the Battle of the Falkland Is- 
lands the House of Commons was going to adjourn 
till mid-January, and Mr. Churchill made up his 
mind to go down to the House and make a state- 
ment as to the loss of the battleship Audacious, 
which, though the nation generally knew nothing 
about it, had been sunk in a German minefield off 
the north coast of Ireland on October 27, 1914. 
But just as he was about to go out of the Ad- 
miralty door he was tackled by Lord Fisher, who 
cajoled and threatened and browbeat him to such 
an extent that he (the First Lord) allowed him- 
self to be turned away from his intended course, 
and he remained silent on this point; and at no 

46 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

subsequent date could I induce anybody to agree 
with me that we might as well let the matter out 
since it was im secret de PolicMnelle, and, even 
if we were abused for a day or so in the Press, 
things happened so fast that the incident would 
soon be forgotten. 

There is no doubt that the continued suppres- 
sion of the loss of that ship cost us the confidence 
of the public both here and abroad, and gave the 
Germans a useful bit of propaganda to use 
against us, and confidence in our truth-telling ca- 
pacity was not wholly restored until the Jutland 
battle. I would not have it thought that I did 
not agree with the suppression of the news for 
about a couple of months, and indeed I am con- 
fident that the German Naval Staff must have been 
considerably puzzled as to the actual truth, as I 
have in my possession now a copy of a New York 
paper giving a ** block '* picture of the Audacious 
as she appeared when she rejoined the Grand 
Fleet, and describing in detail the work done on 
the vessel during the time she was in dock in Bel- 
fast, when day and night shifts were, it was stated, 
being worked on her. 

The story was so circumstantial as to convince 
anybody of its truth, and I think that the German 
Naval Staff must have been very hard put to it 
to decide whether the ship was sunk or whether 
or not she had been actually raised. But I think, 
on the whole, that we should have gained if the 
First Lord had carried out his intention and 

47 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

given the public the facts on the adjournment of 
Parliament, December, 1914; and I believe the 
Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet would 
have agreed, for he had suggested suppression 
only until the conditions existing at the period of 
the disaster had ceased to operate.^ 

It was not without some enjoyment that I got 
my way, a day or two after the armistice was 
signed, and I had my tongue in my cheek as I 
drew up the Admiralty communique announcing 
the vessel's loss some four years before! 

The Dardanelles business, to which I have al- 
ready referred, and the long hours ^ work that it 
gave me (I used to get home to Savile Row 

***I wired to the Admiralty suggesting that the loss of the 
Audacious should be kept secret as long as possible, so that the 
enemy should not learn of it, as the fact would afford him en- 
couragement at a time when the military situation was extremely 
critical for the Allies, and also because, as a general policy, it was 
desirable to conceal from the enemy any serious losses of which he 
could otherwise have no immediate knowledge. This procedure was 
approved for the time, because of the military situation, and the 
Olympic was kept at Lough S willy for several days. This was nec- 
essary as she had on board a considerable number of United States 
passengers, and it was known that they had taken photographs 
of the Audacious in a sinking condition. . . . The Grand Fleet 
was considerably weakened at this time apart from the loss of 
the Audacious. The Ajax had developed condenser defects; the 
Iron Duke had similar troubles; the Orion had to be sent to Gree- 
nock for examination of the turbine supports, which appeared to be 
defective; the Conqueror was at Devonport refitting, and the 
New Zealand was in dock at Cromarty. The Erin and Agincourt, 
having been newly commissioned, could not yet be regarded as ef- 
ficient, so that the Dreadnought Fleet consisted of only 17 effec- 
tive battleships and 5 battle cruisers; the German Dreadnought 
Fleet at the time comprised 15 battleships and 4 battle cruisers, 
with the Blucher in addition. The margin of superiority was, 
therefore, unpleasantly small in view of the fact that the High Sea 
Fleet possessed 88 destroyers and the Grand Fleet only 42/' 
("The Grand Fleet 1914-16: Its Creation, Development and 
Work," By Viscount Jellicoe, of Scapa, p. 31.) 

48 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

at about 1:45 to 2 a.m. and leave again at 8:30 
a.m.) eventually led to my getting a bad attack 
of bronchitis and asthma in the spring, and the 
kindness of the Assistant Secretary in offering me 
a room in the Admiralty, so as to avoid having to 
go out at night, will always be remembered by 
me. It was then, after having tried every known 
and some unknown remedies, that I bolted to 
Harwich and put myself in the care of Commodore 
George Cayley. I was cured by the sun and wind 
in a week, and I formed the habit — ^which I stuck 
to right through, until Admiral Cayley, as he be- 
came, left the Harwich Command — of flying off 
to Harwich whenever my chest became trouble- 
some or I began to lose the habit of sleep, as some- 
times occurred after protracted bouts of heavy 
days and weeks. 

The Dardanelles and one or two bombardments 
of the coast towns are the landmarks of 1915, and 
I suppose it was the former that led to the change 
of First Lord and First Sea Lord in May of that 
year. Certainly Mr. ChurchilPs departure from 
the Admiralty, which he undoubtedly felt very 
acutely, was extraordinarily dignified; and won 
him a great deal of sympathy, even amongst those 
over whom he had at times ridden rough-shod. 
He personally interviewed all heads of depart- 
ments and had a talk with each of us, and when I 
got back to my room — it was on May 22 — I wrote 
down what he had said to me, and give it here : 

*^I want to thank you for all you have done for 

49 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

me. I have been surprised, as we did not, I think, 
like one another at the start ; but I have been im- 
mensely struck by the way you have done your 
work, which has been extraordinarily difficult. 
You have displayed extraordinary tact, shrewd- 
ness, and a wide judgment, and a broad outlook, 
and I want to thank you for the wonderfully loyal 
way you have protected my interests and those 
of the Service.'' 

To this I replied : **I suppose you will get some 
other job soon," and he answered, **0h yes! I 
shall turn up again shortly, I expect." I did not 
see the First Sea Lord, my old chief, to say good- 
bye to him, which is not surprising, as he was liv- 
ing through somewhat hectic times just then. 

With Mr. Balfour's arrival the hours of work 
relaxed a bit — and it was as well they did ! There 
had been a considerable amount of sickness among 
the Admiralty staff, whose numbers had been in- 
creased, I believe, from 1,400 to 3,500, while 
passages (and therefore ventilation) had been en- 
croached upon by building semi-permanent erec- 
tions for their acconmaodation, all existing rooms 
being, in addition, much overcrowded. In fact, 
it was said, and with truth, that had the Admiralty 
been a factory the conditions of housing, i.e., 
room-space, would not have been tolerated for a 
moment by the most lenient factory inspector. 

One of the first results to me of Mr. Balfour's 
term of office was that, as he did not usually re- 
turn after dinner, unless there was something very 

50 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

special going on with, the Fleet or an air raid was 
in progress, I was able to take a longer interval 
for dinner, if I thought fit, though it was not until 
another year had elapsed that I got into the habit 
of taking turns of after-dinner duty, and not till 
the fourth year of the war was ended that I 
dropped the after-dinner work altogether. 

Mr. Balfour also caused an order to be issued 
that everybody, including Heads of Departments, 
was to have one day per week off and to have 
fourteen days' leave, or two lots of seven days, 
during the summer. This was a mercy for all 
of us, though it was really the first thing, per- 
haps, that brought home to all hands that the war 
had, so to speak, come to stay I 

It was in the year 1915 that pressure was put 
on the Admiralty by the Foreign Office, whose 
newly-formed Department of Information was ten- 
tatively trying to start some propaganda, to pro- 
duce a naval film, which should be shown together 
with a military film, depicting the various phases 
of naval training and so on, under the title of 
** Britain Prepared, '' and Mr. Balfour succeeded 
in overcoming the rooted objection of the Grand 
Fleet to this (or any other) form of publicity. 

Once Sir John Jellicoe had accepted the pro- 
posal, he threw himself into it heart and soul, with 
the result that a magnificent film was produced 
under the direction of Mr. Charles Urban. The 
time of year was rather far advanced, and conse- 
quently we had some very fine rough weather 

51 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

effects which have never since been equalled. The 
film was presently run off at the Alhambra Thea- 
tre before a distinguished company, which in- 
cluded Mr. Balfour and Sir Robert Borden. I imag- 
ine that nobody who witnessed that scene will ever 
forget it. Mr. Balfour walked on to the vast stage 
of the Alhambra, which was flanked by a few 
flowers in pots, and after the roar of applause 
had subsided, and looking about him with a quiz- 
zical look, started his speech by saying, *^ Ladies 
and gentlemen, I find myself in somewhat unac- 
customed surroundings.*' He appeared to be a 
little at a loss in the absence of the ballet which 
did not exist! 

The film was a success, but owing to some mis- 
understanding it fell, I believe, into the hands of 
persons in the United States other than those who 
were solely imbued with pro-Ally sentiments. In 
fact, it was shown in many places under the title 
of ^*How Britain Prepared,'' and the pro-Ger- 
mans used it as propaganda against us. 

The arrangement come to between the Admi- 
ralty and Mr. Masterman's Committee — a Com- 
mittee at the Department of Information respon- 
sible for propaganda ^ — was that we should share 
the net profits in certain clearly-defined propor- 
tions. Some eighteen months afterwards, how- 

*The existence of this committee was unknown to the general 
public, as it was thought that the less publicity which attached to 
its operations at home and in Allied and neutral countries, the bet- 
ter. I think the reasoning was sound, but it was afterwards the 
subject of debate in the House of Commons. 

52 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

ever, an ultra-clever custodian of the public purse 
came along and said that he wanted all the profits. 
I pointed out that we had a perfectly clear agree- 
ment with those who had begged us to have the 
film made, but all the answer I could ever get was 
that those with whom we had made the agree- 
ment had no business to make it ; and the Treas- 
ury, so far as I am aware, fobbed the lot. We, at 
any rate, never got any of it for naval charities.^ 

That was our first venture in the realm of films ^ 
though we subsequently became fairly active in 
this line, the whole of which was run by my de- 
partment. But I shall refer to that presently. 

At the same time that Mr. Balfour came in the 
new First Lord, Sir Henry Jackson, arrived. 
From the beginning he treated me precisely the 
same as his predecessors had done, i.e., with the 
greatest consideration. I had one or two amusing 
interludes even with Sir Henry. Several Ameri- 
can journalists urged me to obtain an interview 
for them, and I said that I would see what I could 
manage. I therefore started to lay siege to what- 
ever weakness in this line Sir Henry might pos- 
sess; and here I may say that I never would, or 
did, put forward a suggestion for an interview 
without the clear conviction, amounting to a cer- 
tainty, that it would be of direct benefit to the 
country, and the Navy. 

The First Sea Lord's Naval Assistant, Commo- 

i After this was written, the Treasury relented, if the Treas- 
ury ever relents, and the naval charities got their money after 
all. 

53 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

dore Allan Everett, an old and intimate friend of 
mine, merely smiled and looked down his nose 
and went on with his work when I told him what 
I proposed to say to his ** master, '* the First Sea 
Lord. So I sailed in, and after a certain amount 
of preliminary talk I gradually suggested what 
I had been approached about by my American 
pressmen. Sir Henry was quite patient and calm, 
and certainly did not refuse me flatly, as I had 
fully expected, and on emerging again into the 
Naval Assistant's office and being jovially asked 
how I fared, I said that I thought I had carried 
the first-line trenches! This remark, however, 
was greeted with derision by Commodore Everett 
and Commander Sinclair, who was with him, and 
I ought, perhaps, to add that I tried on several 
subsequent occasions to carry the second-line 
trenches, but failed dismally, though I must also 
confess that Sir Henry never actually ^^bif me, 
as his cheery assistants assured me that he would. 

When the necessity for publicity was much to 
the front, and I had to put before Sir Henry Jack- 
son the papers concerning the taking of the film, 
'^Britain Prepared, '* he read them through care- 
fully, signed the order to the Grand Fleet, and 
then said to me: **Take it away. I don't agree 
with any of it, though I have signed it!'* 

The attitude of the Navy towards publicity was 
very slow to change, and I think I can say to-day 
with a perfectly clear mind that, though the offi- 
cers of the Navy may grudgingly agree that some 

54 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

measure of pu'blicity is an absolute necessity, 
since the Fleet belongs to the nation (i.e., the 
public) and not to the Navy, they thoroughly de- 
test it. The lower deck, perhaps, regards the 
matter somewhat more jocularly. 

During the air raids in the summer of 1915 Mr. 
Balfour used to get on top of the Admiralty Arch 
and watch the proceedings from that position. It 
was from there that he saw the big fire in the 
City, when the bombs were dropped in Wood 
Street and its surroundings, and we all waited 
up there for the reported return of the Zeppelins, 
which, however, did not reappear that particular 
night. 

This was a lovely summer nig'ht, and I remarked 
at the time that we should probably tire of climb- 
ing up on the Arch, or else the colder nights 
would keep us from going up there. As a matter 
of fact, both these reasons, and the additional one 
of keeping out of the way of falling pieces of 
shrapnel and dud shells, kept us in our offices dur- 
ing most subsequent raids. It was certainly an 
odd sight to see the hundreds of clerks going 
down to the basements when the ** Muffin BelP' 
rang as a signal that the Zepps were nearing the 
London area. Fortunately, most of these raids 
took place at night, when there were no women 
clerks about, but on the occasions when daylight 
raids were going on I frankly detested the thought 
of what might happen if a bomb were to drop 

55 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

on the building when it was half -full of young 
women. 

A raid took place one morning about 11:30, 
when one very high-flying aeroplane dropped five 
bombs which just missed Buckingham Palace. 
Being in the private office, I said to the First 
Lord's private secretary, Mr. Masterton-Smith,^ 
''What is that? Is it a salute of any sort? Whose 
birthday is it?'' And Mr. Masterton-Smith 
laughingly said, ' ' Oh, no ! I expect it is the Ger- 
mans bombing London." 

We both laughed and thought no more about it 
till, about half an hour afterwards, we heard that 
bombs had actually been dropped at the back of 
the Victoria Palace Music Hall, in Eaton Square, 
Chesham Place, and Brompton Eoad, falling 
along a straight line which missed Buckingham 
Palace by two or three hundred yards. I have 
little doubt that the bombs were intended for the 
Palace. 

The question of the publication of the losses of 
merchant ships through enemy action was one 
which was repeatedly and hotly discussed in the 
Press and in Parliament all through the war, and 
I always took the view that the publication of 
this news merely gave the Germans definite in- 
formation which they could never be sure of get- 
ting by any other means. They could never, 
for instance, know what particular ships were 
sunk by mines as distinct from submarines, and 

*Now Sir James E. Masterton-Smith. 

56 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

their submarine commanders, attacking at night, 
must often have been in doubt as to the name of 
the ship torpedoed, as well as sometimes of its 
ultimate fate, for a good many managed to reach 
port damaged but afloat. In many cases they did 
not know what ships had been sunk by certain 
submarines which never returned home, but that 
did not prevent them from issuing lying figures. 
Our shipping community, on the other hand, knew 
what ships had gone, since the owners and Lloyd's 
were always informed. The owners, of course, 
informed shippers and insurers of cargo, so that 
repeat orders could be placed for cargoes lost 
and insurance '* ramps" could not very well be 
worked. 

Different views were held, however, by all sorts 
of people, and in the end a compromise was ef- 
fected whereby we published the numbers of ships 
lost per week. After nearly two years of this a 
fresh agitation produced an alteration in the form 
of publication, and the amount of tonnage lost 
was published, the number of ships being with- 
held. This, in its turn, produced a fresh chorus 
of indignation, and the number of ships lost was 
clamantly asked for. The amended form, how- 
ever, held the field till the armistice was signed, 
when the cessation of sinkings put an end to 
the controversy. All manner of publications, 
such as Lloyd's Register, and every book of ref- 
erence dealing with mercantile tonnage were 

57 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

either stopped or their circulation enormously 
restricted. 

There had been a considerable outcry from 
France concerning the lack of precaution in this 
country against the leakage of news of sinkings, 
&c., so the circulation of Lloyd's Register was 
suspended as regarded France, as one possible 
channel of leakage, until there came a violent pro- 
test to the effect that the French Admirals could 
not do without it ! So they had perforce to have 
it. Presently we so restricted the information 
put into Lloyd's Register that it no longer re- 
tained its unbroken record of reliable figures, and 
it was with a very light heart that, on the sign- 
ing of the armistice, I sent out letters saying that 
they could revert to their pre-war practice. I 
would, if I did not feel utterly impenitent, apolo- 
gise for having so harried the shipping authori- 
ties, but I believe they agreed with me that every 
step taken was intended to hamper the enemy 
and to safeguard our shipping. At all events, 
the officials and staff of Lloyd's Register , as well 
as Lloyd's, co-operated with us most loyally 
throughout the war, and were really helpful, and 
I was glad to see this recognised in the knight- 
hood conferred on the secretary of Lloyd's, Ad- 
miral E. F. Inglefield, at the New Year. 

We had to worry equally all people responsible 
for the railway time-tables that showed cross- 
Channel connections — Cook's, Bradshaw's, the 
A. B. C, and those responsible for many other 

58 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

such, publications. They all came under our ban 
in regard to advertising times of cross-Channel 
sailings, and this must have been a nuisance to 
the public and a worry to the railway officials. 
We, of course, knew this, and every step taken by 
us was in consequence very carefully reasoned out. 
The convenience of the public was borne in mind, 
but still more so the safety of the ships, and it 
says much for the care taken by all and sundry 
that no cross-Channel craft was lost until late in 
1918, when the Leinster was sunk in daylight in 
the Irish Channel. 

Some time during 1915 I was travelling North, 
and happened to find myself in company with Mr. 
Blackwood, the publisher. On this occasion I 
had the good fortune to be introduced to him by 
a fellow-passenger. I had had recently to go 
through a manuscript which Blackwood's had sent 
in giving an interesting account of some opera- 
tions on the West Coast of Africa. Some small 
excisions had been made, and Mr. Blackwood 
asked me if I were a fervent admirer of Mr. Lloyd 
George. 

I said that I was, at all events, opposed to him 
in politics, when I had any time in which to think 
about them, and then I asked why he was inter- 
ested in my feelings towards Mr. Lloyd George. 
*'0h,'' said he, ''I noticed you cut out a para- 
graph in which the writer said he had *rope's- 
ended' a West Coast negro called Lloyd George." 
The reason I had cut it out was because rope's- 

59 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

ending is not a legal punishment in the Navy, and 
I did not want to have a lot of questions asked in 
the House. ^^Oh, now I understand," said Mr. 
Blackwood, to which I added, *^I suppose you 
thought it was merely due to the stupidity of the 
Censor, ehT' And he had the grace to laugh, 
thus admitting the soft impeachment! 

It was during this year that I got involved 
with one of the leading London dailies in a slight 
discussion which became somewhat acrid, and cul- 
minated in the paper in question informing me 
that they would proceed against me for libel. 
That was a bit stiff, so I journeyed down the 
passage to where the imperturbable Secretary of 
the Admiralty (Sir Graham Greene) lived, and 
gave him the papers to read through. He went 
through them, and then, glancing up at me with 
his tired but charming smile, said, ' ' That will be 
all right, Brownrigg. Leave it to me," and in 
answer to my question as to sending a reply he 
said, **No; don't send any answer; I will look 
after that." 

I had got myself into this difficulty, and had not 
troubled him with it till I was near getting into 
deep water, when, without a word, to my intense 
relief, he shouldered the whole business. I never 
heard any more of the matter. I merely mention 
the incident to show the type of man Sir Gra- 
ham Greene was. He was a loyal friend, and 
though at times he was maddening when com- 
muniques had to be submitted to him for signa- 

60 



PUBLICITY AND PROPAGANDA 

ture, and lie would spend wliat seemed to me a 
terribly long time going through them, yet I dare 
say I was maddening to him with my impatience. 
On the morning of April 1, 1916, I was early 
in my office, and read the messages describing the 
bringing down of a Zeppelin in the Thames dur- 
ing the early hours of that morning. Knowing 
that Mr. Balfour would be keenly interested, I 
rang up his private secretary, Masterton-Smith, 
and gave him the news, suggesting that he should 
call in at Carlton House Terrace and tell Mr. Bal- 
four. Masterton-Smith got me to repeat the mes- 
sage carefully, and said he would inform Mr. Bal- 
four. I then, as usual, passed the news on to 
Buckingham Palace and certain Government de- 
partments concerned, and thought no more about 
it beyond preparing a communique for the Press, 
so that it might be ready for approval and signa- 
ture as soon as I could get the First Lord's and 
First Sea Lord's signature. Shortly after eleven 
o'clock, however, Masterton-Smith came running 
along and admitted that he had not told Mr. Bal- 
four, as, being the first of April, he thought that 
it was a hoax I 



61 



CHAPTEE TV 

THE BATTLE OF JUTLAITD 

First news tlirough the German wireless — Inland messages 
from officers and men to their relatives — Necessity for 
official statement — Commander-in-Chief approached — Is- 
sue of the first communique and the criticisms provoked 
by it — Issue of the second communique — Leakage of in- 
formation through the publication of private letters — 
First appreciation of the battle written by Sir Julian 
Corbett — Editing the Commander-in-Chief's despatch — 
Its publication and reception — Self -constituted naval crit- 
ics — Mr. Rudyard Kipling asked to write of the destroyer 
actions — Grumbles in the Navy. 

The outstanding naval event in 1916 was, of 
course, the Battle of Jutland. Our first news that 
there had been a battle was the German wireless 
message that announced to the world that **a por- 
tion ' ' of their High Sea Fleet had met our Grand 
Fleet in full force and had defeated it. Presently 
we got various single 'intercepts'' between Sir 
David Beatty and the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Grand Fleet referring to losses of various ships. 
The damaged ships began to come into East 
Coast ports with many hospital cases on board. 
Of course, wild rumours were flying all over the 
country, since officers and men were wiring to 

62 



THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 

their friends saying that they were all right. 
There was normally no censorship of inland mes- 
sages, but on this occasion messages of the nature 
indicated were held up for inquiry before being 
sent on. It was at once decided, however, that 
the number — about 6,000--being so enormous, it 
was out of the question to hold them up. In ad- 
dition large numbers of people in the neighbour- 
hood of Edinburgh had learnt that a battle had 
been fought at sea. 

We were thus faced with the situation that it 
was known all over the country that there had 
been a great naval battle, whilst w^ at the Ad- 
miralty were, officially, in ignorance of what had 
actually occurred. In these circumstances, whilst 
fully appreciating the preoccupations of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, it was decided to ask him for 
a statement for publication. In reply we received 
a message at 3 :30 p.m. on June 2 from the Com- 
mander-in-Chief giving brief details which he had 
received from Sir David Beatty stating what 
ships had been sunk and also extracts from re- 
ports by senior naval officers of various flotillas 
giving their losses. The message added a few 
words as to damage apparently inflicted on the 
German battleships by our Battle Fleet, which 
had been only *^a short time in action.'' 

On that bare information it was decided that it 
was necessary to make an announcement to the 
Press, since it was obviously impossible to main- 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

tain further silence in view of the conditions set 
forth above. 

The first communique was therefore issued to 
the Press at seven p.m. on June 2, and it has been 
very much criticised from various points of view. 
Its wording- was not arrived at without intense 
care and thought and discussion, and those who 
framed it were Mr. Balfour (the First Lord), Ad- 
miral Sir Henry Jackson (the First Sea Lord), 
and Vice- Admiral Sir Henry Oliver (the Chief of 
Staff). It cannot be suggested by anybody that 
more brains could have been got together in any 
Government department, or, for that matter, in 
any other building in London. On the other hand, 
it might be said that they lacked ^ imagination. ' ' 
I question, however, whether ** imagination'' 
would have been of much service on this occa- 
sion, since to give rein to * imagination " at that 
particular time was apt to land one in a very 
dismal frame of mind. 

This was the communique as issued to the news- 
papers : , 

June 2, 7 p.m. On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 21, 
a naval engagement took place off the coast of Jutland. 

The British ships on which the brunt of the fighting fell 
were the Battle-Cruiser Fleet and some cruisers and light 
cruisers, supported by four fast battleships. Among these the 
losses were heavy. 

The German Battle Fleet, aided by low visibility, avoided 
prolonged action with our main forces, and soon after these 
appeared on the scene the enemy returned to port, though not 
before receiving severe damage from our battleships. 

64 



THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 

The battle-cruisers Queen Mary, Indefatigable, Invincible, 
and the cruisers Defence and Black Prince were sunk. 

The Warrior was disabled, and after being towed for some 
time had to be abandoned by her crew. 

It is also known that the destroyers Tipperary, Turbulent, 
Fortune, Sparrowhawk, and Ardent were lost, and six others 
are not yet accounted for. 

No British battleships or light cruisers were sunk. 

The enemy's losses were serious. 

At least one battle-cruiser was destroyed and one severely 
damaged; one battleship reported sunk by our destroyers dur- 
ing a night attack; two light cruisers were disabled, and prob- 
ably sunk. 

The exact number of enemy destroyers disposed of during i 
the action cannot be ascertained with any certainty, but it 
must have been large. 

I have heard from many men and women all 
over the world that this communique came as a 
frightful staggerer, especially to friends of this 
country in neutral States where German propa- 
ganda was going strong, and no doubt our exiled 
compatriots suffered mentally very acutely. 

None the less, I still think, at this distance of 
time, that the only proper course was pursued 
and the only possible version given to the public 
from the facts as they were then known at the 
Admiralty. The only source of information was 
Sir John Jellicoe, the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Grand Fleet, and it was not until he had got 
his ships back to their bases that he was aware 
what losses we had sustained and inflicted. As 
he has explained, the battle having taken place 
on May 31, he himself was not aware even of the 

65 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

loss of the Queen Mary and Indefatigable until 
the following day. He remained at sea, hoping to 
find the enemy again, until the morning of June 1. 
It was not until later, when he had received the 
reports of the other admirals — there were nine of 
them — and of the senior officers of the destroyer 
flotillas that he knew exactly what had happened, 
and all these reports had to be carefully read, fact 
being sifted from surmise, and then co-related one 
to the other. 

It has been said that we should have waited 
till we had fuller news before making any an- 
nouncement at all, but I cannot agree with that 
argument for the reason that, as I have said be- 
fore, our ports were full of damaged ships and 
the hospitals were full of wounded men, and the 
Germans had got away with their fairly complete 
story of the battle through their wireless to every 
country in the world save these islands. As it 
was, some American papers, in fact, on the Ger- 
man statement assumed that the Grand Fleet had 
been defeated, and that kind of thing did not do 
us any good. 

Somewhere about 11:15 p.m., June 2, we got 
a somewhat fuller account from the Commander- 
in-Chief, setting out in detail the damage done to 
the German fleet, and at 1 :15 a.m. on the 3rd the 
second communique was put out, which some- 
what eased the vsituation: 

June 3^ 1:5 a.m. — Since the foregoing communique a fur- 
ther report has been received from the Commander-in-Chief, 

m 



THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 

Grand Fleet, stating that it is now ascertained that our total 
losses in destroyers amount to eight boats in all. 

The Commander-in-Chief also reports that it is now possi- 
ble to form a closer estimate of the losses and damage sus- 
tained by the enemy fleet. 

One Dreadnought battleship of the Kaiser class was blown 
up in an attack by British destroyers, and another Dread- 
nought battleship of the Kaiser class is believed to have been 
sunk by gunfire. 

Of three German battle-cruisers — two of which it is believed 
were the Derfflinger and the Lutzow — one was blown up, an- 
other was heavily engaged by our battle fleet, was j^een to be 
disabled and stopping, and the third was observed to be seri- 
ously damaged. 

One German light cruiser and six German destroyers were 
sunk, and at least two more German light cruisers were seen 
to be disabled. 

Further repeated hits were observed on three other Ger- 
man battleships that were engaged. 

Finally, a German submarine was rammed and sunk. 



Whatever be the rights or wrongs of the first 
Admiralty communique, it had this eifect all the 
world over — our reputation for telling the truth 
was re-established, and, from that time onward, 
I believe it fair to. say that what appeared in our 
communiques was accepted as fact, whereas the 
Germans suffered irretrievably by their original 
lying and vainglorious communique, which they 
were compelled to alter in the course of two or 
three days; only very gradually did they admit 
their losses, whereas we did so at once. 

It occurred to me soon after the second com- 

67 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

munique had been issued that it could do nothing 
but good to obtain the late First Lord's (Mr. 
ChurchilPs) views on the battle, as he, having be- 
come a somewhat keen critic of the Admiralty, 
might be expected to give an unbiased view of it, 
particularly for consumption in neutral countries. 
I personally approached him on the 'phone, and, 
when he came in, I urged and begged him to un- 
dertake the job for us, and at last he consented, 
his views appearing in the Sunday papers. I 
never made a greater mistake in my life (and that 
is saying a good deal), for the whole Press let off 
a scream asking why the Admiralty had given the 
ex-Minister opportunities of examining all the 
material denied to everybody else, and they at- 
tacked him for having had the temerity to give his 
views! I apologised to Mr. Churchill very sin- 
cerely for having brought down all this abuse on 
his head, but he took it with characteristic sang- 
froid, and I believe he thinks, as I do still, that it 
was a good move. Nevertheless, I was bitterly 
sorry that I had added to the abuse that was being 
at that time showered on the Admiralty, for which 
I was unable, publicly, to shoulder the responsi- 
bility. 

Subject to the very minimum of restriction, all 
censorship was taken off regarding this battle, as 
it was felt that the public should have any and 
every personal detail, such as would have been 
published in regard to an epochal event in time of 
peace. That concession produced a fine crop of 

68 



THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 

criticism, not to say abuse, from my many friends 
in the Grand Fleet, who were by no means enam- 
oured of *' publicity. ' ' 

It also proved very inconvenient to us, as cer- 
tain items of information — I refer principally to 
the cause of the sinking of the Queen Mari/ and 
Indefatigable and one or two others by the burst- 
ing of their magazines through one projectile go- 
ing through the turret hood, and the blast from 
the explosion getting down the ammunition up- 
takes — got out in letters published by relatives of 
the men, and when they were seen by the Grand 
Fleet strong protests were made by the Com- 
mander-in-Chief. 

As soon as the protest reached us we had to stop 
all mention of these facts, with the result that in- 
furiated editors and writers bombarded us with 
requests to know why such and such a paper had 
been allowed to print so and so, whereas now 
they were forbidden to do so ? My invariable re- 
ply was, ^^ Because we made a * bloomer' in that 
case, we are not going to permit its repetition." 
And with that they had to be content. Other criti- 
cisms came officially and, unofficially from the 
Grand Fleet, ^'Was there a censor at all, and, if 
so, what did he do r ' ^ ' We should be better with- 
out one, ' ' &c., &c. So far as I personally was con- 
cerned, I was in cordial agreement with the last 
remark. 

When there was sufficient material in the Ad- 
miralty to render it possible for an appreciation 

69 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

of the battle to be written, and having obtained 
the necessary sanction, I impressed Mr. (now 
Sir) Julian Corbett to write it for me, and this 
he did while we, so to speak, stood over him wait- 
ing for him to deliver the goods. I comman- 
deered a room, turned out its disgruntled occu- 
pant, and shut Sir Julian up with all the informa- 
tion available, some paper and pens — and waited. 
The appreciation was produced, in six or eight 
hours, I think, and very grateful we were for it, 
for it was a work of art, and as true and impartial 
a record as one could ever get. Alas ! it had to run 
the gauntlet of approval of various people, and 
it did not eventually reach the Press until three 
or four days after it had been written! 

The next problem was the editing of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief's despatch for publication. It 
was difficult to reconcile the desire to give the 
public a true and authentic account with the im- 
perative necessity of not disclosing to the enemy 
any information of which he was not already in 
possession. This difficulty was acutely raised by 
the mention by name of many new destroyers, 
none of which was known to the enemy. It was. 
settled by compromise; the names of those ves- 
sels specially distinguished by their gallant ac- 
tions were given, and others left out. 

Then came the question of issuing a chart of the 
battle. I urged upon the Board the necessity of 
doing so, saying that if we issued one we could 
prevent any other chart being made and quoted 

70 



THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 

in support of this or that line of criticism. I put 
my views before both Sir John Jellicoe and Sir 
David Beatty on their different visits to the Ad- 
miralty, and eventually the chart was compiled 
and agreed to by all parties and published with 
the despatch. 

It then became a job to get the hundreds of 
copies of the chart ready for issue simultaneously 
with the despatch, and this was done through the 
Press Bureau. I may say that on this and other 
occasions they got similar work done very prompt- 
ly through the photographic trade. 

When at last the despatch was finally edited 
and sent to press and issued, together with its 
chart, I believe I knew every word of it by heart, 
so many times had I been through it. However, 
to make assurance doubly sure we indexed it. 
Every ship's name, every officer's name, and every 
detail to which we might ever wish to refer, or 
by which we could check other statements, was in- 
dexed, and it was well that we did so. This index 
proved invaluable to us, and this '* concordance," 
if I may so call it, is now in the archives with all 
the various stages of the despatch. I then dis- 
covered that I had lost my sleep, and so fled to 
Harwich for seventy- two hours' rest. 

The newspapers of the country generally re- 
ceived the despatch much as might have been ex- 
pected. They were puzzled, sore, and, for the 
most part, anxious to do what was best for the 
country; but, in the war, events moved so rapidly, 

71 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

and one crisis followed another so swiftly, that 
it soon ceased to be much discussed, except among 
certain writers, who, by the volume of output of 
words, have become self-constituted ^^ naval crit- 
ics. '^ My one object in dealing with all writings 
emanating from this class of critic was to avoid 
the driving of a wedge between any two schools 
of thought in the Navy, or of letting it be thought 
outside that such a cleavage was possibly in ex- 
istence, or in process of formation or growth. 
The object of certain of these writers was obvi- 
ously to drive the wedge in, and to hold up one 
officer to ridicule and abuse, and to laud the other. 
I imagine the attempts were equally offensive both 
to the officers concerned and to their schools of 
thought. At all events, I like to think so. 

As soon as the despatch was out of the way I 
tried to get permission to have the battle de- 
scribed to the public by one of the outstanding 
writers of the day, and I succeeded so far as to 
be authorised to ask Mr. Eudyard Kipliag if he 
Would undertake a series of articles on the de- 
stroyer attacks during the battle. As a matter 
of fact, I had already, on my own initiative, ap- 
proached him and obtained his consent. 

I then collected all the reports, which filled a 
large despatch-box, and proceeded to invade Mr. 
Kipling in his country house. As soon as I had 
shown him. what I had brought him he was en- 
thusiastic about the job, and having explained to 
him what points were wanted left alone, he accept- 

72 



THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND 

ed the task, notwithstanding the numbing and 
withering censorship that had to be imposed on 
him. Let me add that in those priceless articles 
which he produced for us not one word was ever 
deleted by me or anybody else. 

The articles, however, were not appreciated by 
the Navy as a whole. It was said that I had sold 
my soul to the Press (though the Press would not 
have offered much, I imagine, for an organ which 
they frequently said I did not possess !) ; that the 
Navy was going to the dogs; and what was the 
Censor for, anyway? However, the public, I 
think, did very much appreciate them, and as the 
public who read the Press and provide the money 
for the Navy number some forty-five millions or 
so, and, as it was admitted the enemy could gain 
neither information nor consolation from the ar- 
ticles, I felt quite happy about them. 



73 



CHAPTER V 

THE DEATH OF LOED KITCHENER 

Interview with Colonel Fitzgerald — Secret plans for tlie Eus- 
sian visit — ^News of the loss of the cruiser Hampshire — 
The Commander-in-Chief's conclusions — The rumours of 
his capture by the Germans and their probable origin — 
A so-called mystery solved. 

When I came into the office on the morning of 
June 6, 1916, I found the cables giving the sad 
news of the loss of the Hampshire overnight — 
i.e. on June 5. Coming on the top of the Jutland 
losses, which were only just out, this was really 
a heavy shock. I had seen Colonel Fitzgerald, 
Lord Kitchener's military secretary, in the room 
of the Director of Naval Intelligence, and had had 
a yarn with him just before his departure, which 
was being kept so secret that he wouldn't even 
speak of it out loud. But we had just had a short 
chat and a ** chin-chin ' ' and **good luck,'' and 
now here were the messages saying that the whole 
party was drowned ! 

Lord Kitchener, it may be recalled, had set out 
on a special mission to Russia, intending to pro- 
ceed by way of Archangel. He left London on 
June 4, and went on board the Fleet-flagship Iron 

74: 



THE DEATH OF LORD KITCHENER 

Duke at Scapa Flow on the following morning, 
and about four o^clock that afternoon he em- 
barked in the armoured cruiser Hampshire, which 
had returned from the Battle of Jutland four 
days before. The Secretary of State for War 
was accompanied by his Staff — comprising Briga- 
dier-General Ellershaw, Sir F. Donaldson, of the 
Ministry of Munitions, Colonel Fitzgerald, Mili- 
tary Secretary, Mr. O'Beirne, of the Foreign Of- 
fice, Mr. Eobertson, of the Munitions Department, 
and Second - Lieutenant McPherson, Cameron 
Highlanders. A gale from the north-eastward 
was blowing in the afternoon, and Sir John Jelli- 
coe discussed with his Staff the route which should 
be taken. In ^^The Grand Fleet, 1914-16," the 
Commander-in-Chief has remarked: ^^I have often 
wondered since that fatal day whether anything 
could have been done that was not done; but, 
short of postponing the departure of the Hamp- 
shire altogether, until weather conditions admit- 
ted of a channel being swept ahead of her, no safe- 
guards were possible.^ Such a decision would 
have resulted in two or three days' delay in start- 
ing, and would never have been agreed to by Lord 
Kitchener. ' ' 

I felt — as no doubt every sailor felt — a pang 
that this great man should have come to his end 
whilst in the charge of the Navy, as Sir John 
Jellicoe expressed it in his message, which was 

* The enemy had previously laid no mines in this area. 

75 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

included in the communique issued to tlie public 
at midday tlie same day, June 6. 

Thei'e was at the time a good deal of talk, that 
the news was out in Berlin before it was out in 
this country, and it was therefore suggested by 
many people that this pointed to the fact of spie^ 
having engineered the whole tragedy, and that 
Lord Kitchener had been taken prisoner by a U- 
boat, and was in Berlin, and a lot more similar 
rubbish. I believe that what gave rise to all this 
mass of conjecture, apart from the desire to be- 
lieve anything except what is true on the part of 
a small but hysterical portion of the public, was 
the following sequence af events. 

The Prime Minister was informed at about 
10:12 a.m. by Masterton-Smith. The facts were 
got together ; a wire was sent to the Grand Fleet 
asking for the last details to date ; and presently 
a communique was produced setting out as much 
as was known of the facts and handed to me about 
11 :30 a.m. I had it retyped and sent two copies 
to the Press Bureau for them to distribute to the 
newspapers and news agencies, home and foreign. 
Being a short communique, it did not take long 
to do this, and no doubt it was in the hands of the 
agencies by twelve o ^clock, about which time I got 
an urgent message to stop the issue if possible ! I 
at once telephoned to the Press Bureau (on our 
private line) and was told that the best they could 
do was to stop the Press getting out special edi- 
tions, which would probably have been difficult in 

76 



THE DEATH OF LORD KITCHENER 

any case, as their first editions were out, and they 
were then preparing for their 2 :30 editions. But, 
of course, the agencies had at once cabled it 
abroad, direct from the Press Bureau. Hence the 
message must have been in Holland and the Scan- 
dinavian countries instantly, and naturally who- 
ever got it in Holland would see gold in it and 
'phone it to Berlin and all over the north. 

Hence what actually happened was that the 
news was on sale in Berlin before it was here. 
The reason for the delay was that a fresh mes- 
sage had just come in from Sir John Jellicoe. A 
couple of lines were added to the original com- 
munique, and it was once more sent over to the 
Press Bureau, and was eventually in the hands of 
the public by about 1 :30 p.m., I believe. 

I have repeatedly tried to explain this simple 
but strange sequence of events, but some ^*hot air 
merchants'' in the Press have liked to keep the 
cruel story going that Lord Kitchener was still 
alive, that spies knew all about his proposed 
movements, and that there was still an uncon- 
trolled and secret cable from our East Coast to 
Germany or Holland, of whose existence our 
sleepy authorities knew nothing, and — by innuen- 
do — cared less ! There was no mystery about the 
business, as everyone will realise on reading what 
I have written. 



77 



CHAPTER VI 

EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

Interviews with Mr. Joseph Conrad and Mr. H. B. Wells — 
Lord Jellicoe and the Press — Arrival of Admiral Sims 
from the United States — Filming- the historical arrival 
of the first American destroyers — Pictures of General 
Pershing's landing* — A dinner-time indiscretion — Provid- 
ing cinema entertainments for American sailors — Estab- 
lishing the censorship of the American naval mail — ^Regu- 
lar conferences with the Press. 

It was in the autumn of 1917 that I came to the 
conclusion that it was time the doings of the won- 
derful Mercantile Navy should be written up, by 
which I do not mean slobbered over or *^ boost- 
ed/' but written up by somebody whose heart 
would be in the job, and who would understand 
the hearts and minds of the Merchant Navy as 
well as those of the public. 

I therefore approached Mr. Joseph Conrad, and 
he very kindly came up and saw me, and agreed 
to take on the business, though he said he was 
not a writer for the Press. I was overjoyed at se- 
curing his co-operation, and we fixed up an ex- 
tensive programme for him, and he travelled all 
over the country and had the free entry into every 
port and ship in which the Royal and Mercantile 

78 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

Navies were co-operating. I can honestly say, 
now the war is over, that no man has seen as much 
as Mr. Conrad saw in those few months when he 
was going round observing all the various sorts 
of work the mercantile marine was performing. I 
even got permission for him to go out in one of the 
*'Q" boats, which were at that time more or less 
in their infancy. I should say that when I got 
him permission this perhaps should not be taken 
OM pied de la lettre. I asked the imperturbable 
Chief of the Staff (Admiral Sir Henry Oliver) if 
I might send him out. He looked up at me and, 
merely saying, ^^I don't want to know anything 
about it, ' ' went on writing and smoking his pipe ; 
so I darted out of the room knowing that I could 
go ahead, and that all I had to do was to square 
the Senior Naval Officer at the port of departure, 
which I did! In due course, therefore, Mr. Con- 
rad went for a cruise in a ^'Q'* boat. He was a 
perfectly delightful man to have to deal with, en- 
thusiastic over everything he saw and did, includ- 
ing a flight in a Eoyal Naval Air Service machine 
against a 60-mile an hour gale, piloted — as he put 
it — ^by a child, meaning a young officer of 21 or so. 
This was a sporting effort in a man then about 
60, 1 believe. 

To my unceasing regret, indisposition prevent- 
ed him doing any of the work he and I had thought 
possible. None the less, I hope and believe that 
we shall yet see the result of those trips and ex- 

79 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

peditions, and when that comes about my regret 
will go by the board. 

In November of that year, when there was much 
talk of the E.N.A.S. being amalgamated, or 
mopped np into a new joint Air Force, it seemed 
to me that I should endeavour to get its story 
written up to date. Its performances had been 
sufficiently brilliant, though, owing to our then 
policy of secrecy and silence, but little of its every- 
day work was known. 

I therefore wrote to Mr. H. G. Wells, and asked 
him if he would undertake the work, since no one 
could have a better claim, as he had written of 
flying when the rest of us were tnarvelling at mo- 
tor-cars. He did not turn the suggestion down, 
and so I waited and hoped. After some little 
time, greatly daring, I went to find him at the 
block of flats where he lived. Here, according 
to the board in the hall, he was always **out," and 
also according to the lift boy — the latter a well- 
trained and imperturbable little liar! On or 
about my third call, and it being then nearly 
eleven a.m., I was told as usual by my friend 
the lift boy that Mr. Wells was out, and so, merely 
saying that was quite aU right, I told him to take 
me upstairs, which he had to do. 

I felt rather like the man who * 'travels" ii;i 
books. I went to the door of the flat and rang, 
and was informed that Mr. Wells was out, and so, 
keeping the man in conversation for a moment 
and talking somewhat loudly, I said it was a pity, 

80 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

as I had a letter from Mr. Wells (wMch, indeed, I 
held in my hand), and that I was anxious to see 
him about it. Eonnd the corner appeared Mr. 
Wells, and I then gave him my card, and we went 
together into his study or library, and with mu- 
tual apologies we got to work. I put before him 
what I had in my mind concerning the E.N.A.S. 
Mr. Wells said, which was true, that he had just 
returned from the Italian front, and was extreme- 
ly busy on that series of articles which we all were 
reading, and he was very tired. That, I said, was 
all to the good, as, when he wanted a change of 
scene and air, he could go down to any of our air 
stations, stay two or three days, or as many as he 
liked, and that every arrangement would be made 
for housing him and taking care of him. He might 
fly when he liked. He said that he could not pro- 
duce anything just yet, but I was quite unmoved. 
Would I wait a month or two! Any number of 
months within reason, I told him. I only wanted 
to have his version of its record and performances 
since its birth to the time of its prospective amal- 
gamation. It was all agreed, and we parted on 
the best of terms, with renewed apologies on both 
sides. 

And that, alas ! was the last of that particular 
effort. Mr. Wells forgot the R.N.A.S. and the 
persevering Chief Censor — in thinking about Mr. 
Britling, I suspect! 

None the less these were two bitter disappoint- 
ments to me, and all the time the Press was snip- 

81 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

ing away at the Admiralty for their idiotic and 
unimaginative attitude towards publicity! 

In December, 1916, Sir John Jellicoe arrived as 
First Sea Lord, the third under whom I was to 
serve. When he came in I told him that he had 
*^a bad Press," and did he want anything done 
about it? He said, with his quizzical smile, that he 
knew he had, and no doubt by the time he had told 
the truth a few times regarding the submarine po- 
sition he would have a still worse one. So I asked 
him again if he would not allow me to see what 
could be done. No, he must allow the Press to 
form its own judgment, and if it elected to be 
guided by one set of writers more than any others 
— ^well, that was its own btisiness. Anyway, he 
did not expect to last twelve months, and in any 
case he had no time to read the papers. So I had 
no more to say. 

His attitude towards me was as charming as it 
could be. He had known me for thirty years ex- 
actly, and it was pleasant to have him as ** Chief." 
He was always get-at-able, and his decisions were 
always given pat. I tried once or twice to get him 
to use his influence with the new Commander-in- 
Chief of the Grand Fleet when I wanted to send 
writers up north so as to obtain a little more pub- 
licity, but his invariable reply was: *^Well, I 
would not have them up there when I was Com- 
mander-in-Chief, so how can you expect me to 
ask Sir David Beatty to do so?" And, that being 
a bit of a poser, I merely said that times were 

82 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

changing, autres temps, autres mceurs, and 
so on. But I felt it was beating the air, so I pres- 
ently tried my hand on the Commander-in-Chief 
personally. 

In March, 1917, Admiral Sims came over, his 
arrival being necessarily kept very secret owing 
to the United States being still neutral, so, most 
unfortunately, no film was taken of this incident. 
When, however, the United States had come into 
the war, and the first flotilla of their destroyers 
were due to reach Queenstown, I came to the con- 
clusion that this scene must be filmed. 

At that time I knew nothing whatever about 
the cinema business, so I sent and asked Dr. Dis- 
tin Maddick, who had been responsible for the 
taking of the Somme and other Western Front 
battle films, to come and help me out. I had pre- 
viously secured a sort of negative permission 
(which sounds paradoxical, but in my experience 
such a permission is often quite effective) to get 
the business done if, and a very big if, I could get 
the Admiral Commanding at Queenstown, Sir 
Lewis Bayly, to agree to such a spectacular 
course. 

I knew that would be a difficult task. However, 
I put the case fairly and squarely before Dr. Mad- 
dick — Captain Maddick he then was — and in two 
hours' time he left London with his operators and 
paraphernalia for Queenstown. He got on so well 
with everybody, including Sir Lewis Bayly and 
Admiral Sims (who christened him ** Major 

83 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Movie' 0> that he was entirely successful, and so 
this historic incident of the United States destroy- 
ers coming to the aid of their erstwhile enemy^ — 
very erstwhile — is on record. We had the film 
showing all over the country as soon as it was 
considered wise to let the enemy know that the 
United States destroyers were really operating 
here, and we sent two copies of the film to the 
United States, one as a gift to the American Red 
Cross and the other to the Naval CoUege at An- 
napolis. 

This was the beginning of the fihn business of 
my department, which presently grew to serious 
proportions, and of which I have written else- 
where. 

Presently General Pershing was due, and his 
arrival was also, and very necessarily, kept a close 
secret; but, as I have said before, not many se- 
crets were kept from me, and so I knew when he 
was really due to arrive at Liverpool, and I had 
a hard task to keep it to myself. For, first, the 
Ambassador was to give a big dinner in General 
Pershing's honour — or, at all events, he was to be 
greeted at this dinner — and so his Excellency was 
naturally anxious to know at least on what date 
he would arrive, and if he would be in time for 
dinner. I had to put him off for about three days, 
and then finally told him the General could not be 
present on the fixed date, so the arrangements for 
the dinner had to be changed. 

Then, secondly, the United States pressmen 

84 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

were quite naturally after me and after informa- 
tion like bees round a honey-pot. To make a long 
story short, I acted this time without consulting 
anybody, and sent up a large batch of them, under 
absolute pledges of secrecy, to Liverpool, together 
with Dr. Maddick and his satellites, and 'phoned 
through to the Senior Naval Officer, Liverpool 
(Admiral Stileman), requesting him to do every- 
thing possible to give the American pressmen as 
good a view as possible and to make the whole 
show a success. 

The General arrived in the early morning, and 
he was filmed (for us) almost as much as he might 
have been in his own country; the newsmen had 
a real good time with him, and the whole business 
went off with a snap and was a great success, and, 
in the preoccupation of the moment and I may 
add in the relief at his safe arrival, my *^ bosses" 
took the filming and Press stunt as an ordinary 
everyday event, without comment I 

I had very pleasant relations with Admiral 
Sims, extending over the whole of his time in this 
country, almost exactly two years. But he had 
many a kindly dig at me in public speeches, over 
which he and I laughed together afterwards, and 
so I hope he will not deny me another laugh, but 
will join in it, though this time the laugh is at his 
expense. Shortly after he came here it will be re- 
membered that he went to Queenstown, and after 
staying there a few days with our Commander-in- 
Chief, the latter went on a shore leave, and Ad- 

85 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

miral Sims hoisted his flag in command of the 
British and American vessels. On his return 
from that visit he was the central figure at a din- 
ner at the Carlton Hotel (at which he lived), and 
he explained to his party all about our ^ ' Q ' ^ boats, 
which he had seen at Queenstown, how long it took 
for their sham bulwarks to be dropped and for 
the guns to be brought into action, and so on, to- 
gether with every conceivable and extremely in- 
teresting detail connected with what was then, and 
indeed right down to Armistice Day, a very secret 
branch of our service. 

The next morning the whole conversation was 
reported to me, whereupon I decided to let the 
Admiral know that what he said in public places 
was apt to come home to roost, and I gave him 
word for word what he had regaled' his friends 
with. I apologised profusely for venturing, &c., 
&c. He had the grace to blush, whilst he said that 
he had forgotten one had to be so **darn cau- 
tious. ' ' I have never repeated this story to any- 
body, so I hope he will forgive me for doing so 
now. His blush was a thing to see — and remem- 
ber! 

When the U. S. destroyer flotillas at Queens- 
town began to grow, the officers and men speed- 
ily found it necessary to build a club for their 
men, as they were unable to go to Cork, and the 
attractions of Queenstown soon palled. They 
wanted films, and the captain of the depot ship 
Melville, Commander Pringle — one of the best 

86 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

among the many excellent gentlemen they sent 
over to this country — despatched an emissary to 
me to see if I could help him to provide a series 
of films for the use of the men of the flotilla at 
their club. I got in touch with Sir William Jury 
(then Mr. Jury), and he at once gave a very sym- 
pathetic hearing to the case, and in a week he had 
got several of the leading film '* renters'' in this 
country to join him in assuring us a good and 
bright programme, completely changed three 
times a week. The service was started in a fort- 
night, and continued down to the time the last 
boat left Queenstown — *^free, gratis, and for 
nothing.'' 

The films were sent down to my office. We 
trained them to Queenstown direct to the Mel- 
ville, They were similarly returned direct to me, 
and a register was kept of them, so that we could 
tell how long they were away on tour. In the 
eighteen months in which this service was carried 
on not a film was lost, and they were much ap- 
preciated by the officers and men of those flotillas. 
Hats off to Sir William Jury and the other *^ rent- 
ers" who so generously lent the films! 

Subsequently I extended this film service to the 
6th Battle Squadron (Admiral Eodman's United 
States Battle Squadron), and continued it for 
some two or three months, but they were able to 
make other arrangements with the Y.M.C.A., 
and so we dropped our contribution to them. 

We also started a service for the United States 

87 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Squadron at Gibraltar, and we had an unfortu- 
nate experience with them, as, for some reason, 
they allowed about thirty films to accumulate, and 
shipped them home in a United States coastguard 
cutter, which was torpedoed and sunk with all 
hands; we lost about £480 worth of films. How- 
ever, I had arranged that this service should be at 
the disposal of our men as well as the United 
States Navy men, and had agreed with Admiral 
Niblack (United States Navy) that in case rent 
was required for the service we would halve it; 
so when the loss occurred we agreed to pay half 
each. 

The censoring of the mail from the United 
States destroyer flotillas at Queenstown was start- 
ed on exactly the same lines as on our own ves- 
sels, i.e., by their own officers, after which they 
were posted to the Chief Postal Censor at Queens- 
town by arrangement with Colonel Pearson, the 
Chief Postal Censor in London, with whom I ar- 
ranged to make careful examination of a certain 
percentage of letters to see that the new United 
States censorship was efficient. All this was done 
by agreement with, and at the request of. Ad- 
miral Sims, who in everything wished to conform 
to British Navy ruling and experience. 

At the end of a month the Liverpool Censor's 
Department reported that the United States offi- 
cers' censorship was efficiently done, even if it 
was over drastic, and that the tone of all the let- 
ters was excellent, and he suggested, therefore, 

88 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

that we should drop the censoring of these mails. 
I told this to Admiral Sims with great satisfac- 
tion, and, as I knew that the United States naval 
ratings resented the British authorities going 
over their correspondence, I naturally expected 
that this suggestion would be agreed to by the 
Admiral. Not a bit of it. He begged me not to 
disturb the existing arrangement, except in so far 
as we were welcome not to open and examine their 
letters. **But for goodness' sake,'^ he said, *4et 
them go on thinking you are censoring their let- 
ters !'' And so the mails continued to be con- 
signed to our censorship, and I do not doubt that 
we continued to enjoy being reviled by the U. S. 
naval ratings of the flotilla at Queenstown — an 
innocent ruse and all in a good cause ! 

During 1917 and 1918 publicity was being more 
and more urgently forced on the Admiralty, and 
each successive First Lord gave interviews to the 
Press, and we had usually some eighty or ninety 
Press representatives at these informal talks. 

At one of these, whilst Mr. Balfour was First 
Lord, he read a letter from Lord NorthclifPe 
couched in somewhat brusque language to the ef- 
fect that as he (Lord Northcliffe) did not agree 
with these conferences, which he considered had 
the effect of muzzling the Press, he would not 
have any of his papers represented. Mr. Balfour 
said that, though he regretted the absence of rep- 
resentatives of any of the Northcliffe papers, he 
begged those present to believe that there was 

89 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

no intention or idea of muzzling the Press, and lie 
thought that they all understood that. In his opin- 
ion it was a convenient and interesting way of 
giving representatives of the Press certain 
facts which, though they could not be made public, 
would enable them to view various subjects at all 
events from an informed point of view, and thus 
enable them to be better equipped in guiding pub- 
lic opinion. 

Lord Burnham, on behalf of the Press, said 
that they were all quite agreed as to their abso- 
lute freedom, and were grateful for the confer- 
ences. Mr. H. Wickham Steed, then foreign edi- 
tor of The Times, at this point got up from the 
back of the room, and, to the intense amusement 
of his colleagues, said that he was there repre- 
senting one of Lord Northcliff e 's papers and had 
no instructions to stop away. In view of the 
terms of Lord Northcliffe's letter, did Mr. Bal- 
four wish him to withdraw? The reply, of course, 
was that the First Lord certainly did not wish him 
to do so, and that he must please himself. So he 
stayed, and I hope Lord Northcliffe was content. 
He had written a very abrupt and, as it seemed, 
unnecessary letter, and, however undesignedly, he 
also got the benefit of his representative ^s attend- 
ance. 

These press talks used to occupy about one to 
one and a half hour, and I dare-say the Press- 
men thought that was all there was in it ; but as a 
matter of fact there was a very great deal of work 

90 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

thrown on the First Lord's staff in preparing the 
subject of the talk and also in issuing the invita- 
tions to editors or their representatives, which 
was at first done by the Admiralty, but subse- 
quently through the Newspaper Proprietors ' As- 
sociation. Whichever way they were issued, 
however, there always came a crop of letters of 
protest from some of those who had not been bid- 
den. The 'phone was kept busy attacking me and 
anybody else through which it was thought an in- 
vitation might be * * wangled. ' ' But I knew that our 
largest room could not hold more than ninety per- 
sons, and, as it was my business not to irritate 
anybody who might ^*turn nasty," I had to resort 
to what is known as ^^ passing the buck"; I would 
suggest that the applicant should ^^try number so 
and so. He might arrange it for him." When 
the same gentleman returned to the attack I would 
get one of my assistants to take the message 
whilst I used the second listener. The applicant 
would then be referred to the Newspaper Proprie- 
tors ' Association, but, if he were not a member 
of that association, and was still insistent, the 
answer was given that the Chief Censor was out 
just now and would ring him up on his return; 
and that might purchase immunity for an hour 
or so. 

I need hardly say that I never rang up anybody 
on any subject at their request — I had enough to 
do to answer the 'phone and get through the 
work as best I could. When and if the applicant 

91 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

returned to the charge again, and if I got caught 
napping, I had to say that I would see what could 
be done, and would write him, after which he went 
home, or, I hope, out to play golf, probably curs- 
ing me for having put him off his game. 

When Sir Eric Geddes became First Lord and 
sent for me on the subject of more publicity, I 
urged him to have these Press meetings once a 
month, as it would keep the Press informed and in 
sympathy with the work of the Navy. He only 
had two of these Press talks, however, as, I be- 
lieve, he found they took up more time than he 
could spare. I was struck by his extraordinary 
fluency at these meetings. He could talk for an 
hour with practically no notes, and would answer 
any and every question without trouble. 

In addition to the First Lord and his private 
secretary there was usually a goodly array of Ad- 
miralty officers at these functions, including, as a 
rule, the Chief of Staff or the Vice- or Deputy- 
Chief of Staff, the Director of Naval Intelligence, 
and myself. 

Nor did the work of preparation of the actual 
matter to be put before the Press and the arrang- 
ing of the invitations finish the business. After 
the little function was over the whole proceedings 
had to be typed from the shorthand notes, and I 
had to have a copy so as to be able to check writ- 
ers who might quote from the information given. 
All this worked * * chucked in, ' ' as one may say, on 
top of the ordinary everyday work made the First 

92 



EDUCATING THE PUBLIC 

Lords chary of having the meetings as often as 
they would have wished. 

It is only fair to say, however, that no disagree- 
able incident ever arose from those meetings, and 
the Press was, I think, satisfied with them, and 
they undoubtedly did good all round. We cer< 
tainly had every reason to be grateful to the 
newspapers for their absolute loyalty and discre- 
tion in handling the information they had re- 
ceived. 



93 



CHAPTER VII 

CO-OPEEATION WITH OTHEE DEPAKTMENTS 

The Foreign Office Department of Information — An American 
lady journalist's "scoop" — ^Advent of Colonel John 
Buchan — Attempt to capture my cinema organization — 
Lord Beaverbrook's work — The Exhibition of Naval Pho- 
tographs at Princes Galleries — Their world-wide tour — 
Filming the Grand Fleet — Relations with the Newspaper 
Proprietors' Association and Sir George Riddell — Special 
conference at the Admiralty — Motion of dissatisfaction 
defeated. 

The Foreign Office Department of Information, 
as I remember it, was first under Mr. C. H. Mont- 
gomery of the Foreign Office, who was indirectly 
responsible for getting facilities for Government 
guests, and for Allied and neutral journalists, to 
visit places of interest. That, at all events, is my 
recollection of the beginnings of the work which 
subsequently came under the Ministry of Infor- 
mation. Working with Montgomery was Mr. G. 
H. Mair, who had especially to do with visits to 
the Fleet, which we arranged together. If I may 
put it so, these gentlemen resembled eager bride- 
grooms, ever pressing and coaxing the elusive 
bridge to grant them more and yet more favours 
in the shape of permits to visit the Fleet. In real- 

94 



CO-OPERATION 

ity I was a sort of buffer between the importu- 
nity of the Foreign Office and the dislike of the 
Fleet for visitors in any shape or form. How- 
ever, we got along fairly well, what with sending 
M. Protopopoff (since beheaded), Mr. Bottomly, 
Mr. Stevenson (the billiard player) and hundreds 
of others, and so managed to keep the Foreign 
Office comparatively quiet and the Fleet from ac- 
tual revolt. 

We kept careful records of all who went, but 
alas, not from the very beginning. Every news- 
paper representative was, p^ce Mr. Montgomery, 
most important. Presently the Fleet tumbled to 
this chronic use of superlatives in describing these 
journalistic visitors, and they wrote down and 
asked me what adjective I should use if I had to 
send the Archangel Gabriel up to them? My only 
reply was *^wait and see.'' 

I have a pleasant recollection of an attractive 
lady journalist from across the Atlantic who was 
favoured more than many, whether owing to her 
personal charm or her journalistic ability I have 
never been able to say, nor would I if I could, but 
having seen something of our Naval side she was 
very anxious to see a submarine. I made a very 
special favour of this, as well I might, for nobody 
was allowed on board a submarine even before the 
war. However, it so happened that we had one 
in dry dock at Chatham, which had had her bows 
blown oif through bumping a German mine off 
the German coast, and her safe return to this side 

95 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

was one of the epics of the war at that time. 
Every arrangement was made for the lady's visit, 
and she was well received by the submarine 's ofl&- 
cers and shown over the boat and entertained at 
luncheon and so on. She came back to me de- 
lighted, as well she might be, and wrote an excel- 
lent story for her magazine or paper, and I hope 
she was really proud of her achievement. But 
what I never told her, but now confess, is that it 
was one of the Schwab-built submarines which 
had come to us from the other side of the Atlantic 
so that an American lady's going over it did not 
matter! Her countrymen had nothing to learn 
concerning that boat. 

During all the time that Montgomery, Mair, and 
our office worked together, Montgomery used to 
squeeze the concessions out of me, Mair then 
worked out the itineraries, and extraordinarily 
smoothly and well did he and his organisation 
do it. 

Presently the business was put under Mr. 
(afterwards Colonel) John Buchan. I had equal- 
ly pleasant relations with him, but the work was 
not made easier, nor was it handled more success- 
fully, by reason of constant changes in the per- 
sonnel connected with it. 

It soon became evident to me that Colonel Bu- 
chan 's Department in its zeal for propaganda was 
anxious to nobble my newly formed cinema or- 
ganisation. I was asked on the 'phone if I would 
receive one of Colonel Buchan 's representatives, 

96 



CO-OPERATION 

and of course agreed. In due course there arrived 
a gentleman who had been in pre-war days pri- 
vate secretary to one of our Scottish Prime Min- 
isters. He was well gifted with words (Colonel 
Buchan'^s representative, I mean) and it took him 
one and a half pleasant hours to unfold to me his 
simple plan for nobbling our moving picture busi- 
ness, just then getting well into its stride. I hope 
I was honest enough to make it quite clear to him 
that I hadn 't yet got into my brain how the propa- 
ganda business of the country would benefit nor 
how the Admiralty was going to come out of it. 
Several lengthy letters reached me subsequently 
on the same subject, and we had one or two addi- 
tional (and pleasant) interviews, but no change 
was made! 

In due course the Ministry of Information was 
created by Lord Beaverbrook, and I wish to place 
on record that from the very first my relations 
with him were most pleasant. He was an extraor- 
dinarily hard-working man, though in poor health. 
I frequently went down to the Ministry at 7:00 
p.m. and found him full length, flat, on the sofa, 
physically exhausted, I imagine. He was not so 
mentally, however, and he would dictate whatever 
I asked him, and I would be away in ^ve minutes. 

We never had a disagreement. His new de- 
partment came along with claims for detachments 
and veritable armies of visitors for the Fleet. 
These I played off on various ports, and trips 
were worked out which would be really instructive 

97 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

to the visitors, whilst reserving the Grand Fleet 
for specially **big bugs" that I could not side- 
track elsewhere. 

I told Lord Beaverbrook what I was doing and 
why, namely, that the Fleet, then frequently at 
Rosyth and very accessible, would not hear of 
such chronic and huge invasions, and if the Gov- 
ernment or any Minister tried to put pressure on 
them they would merely lift their anchors and 
proceed to Scapa, where they were secure from 
attack, since very few visitors could spare the 
time for the long journey, finishing up with two 
or three hours of a beastly crossing in the dark, 
except in the summer months. Here also pressure 
could not be exercised on the Fleet, as visitors had 
to sleep on board and might have to proceed to sea 
at any moment to fight an action. Lord Beaver- 
brook perfectly understood my difficulties and we 
could not have got on better. 

When he got up his Exhibition of military pho- 
tographs at the Grafton Gallery for the Red 
Cross, he asked me to supply him with enough 
photographs to fill two rooms, so I told him plump 
and plain that we had not then sufficient available 
for exhibition, nor could they be obtained in the 
time. He agreed with me that it was better not 
to go in at all unless we could go in with credit, 
so we let that exhibition go by. 

He then started to work on the First Lord to 
get a Naval Photographic Exhibition. The First 
Lord sent me an order to get in touch with Lord 

98 



CO-OPERATION 

Beaverbrook and see what could be done. I told 
Lord Beaverbrook that, for the purposes of this 
show, I wanted the services of Ernest Brooks, who 
had been our photographer at Gallipoli. ** Where 
is her ' asked Lord Beaverbrook. **0n the West- 
em Front,'' I told him. *^Very well, you shall 
have him the day after to-morrow," and I got him 
sure enough. 

He also lent me one of his own (Ministry) men, 
Captain Castle. I had had a tame photographer, 
Captain Bernard Grant, an excellent man, who 
had been taking photographs for me for the use 
of the Press and general propaganda purposes for 
some months, but he had recently joined the Air 
Force. So I also borrowed him for a time. My 
own photographer, Lieutenant Neal, Ei.N.V.R., 
who had succeeded Grant, completed the number. 
Altogether I had a fine team to work up material 
suitable for a really first-class show. 

I rushed up to the Fleet and got round Sir 
David Beatty, and pointed out that the Navy 
wanted a little bit of advertising, and that our 
charities needed the money. The interview was 
a success and I returned with the necessary sanc- 
tion in my pocket. The team worked for three 
months and under the business control of the late 
Sir Bertram Lima ^ produced the show which was 
opened by the First Lord at the Princes Galleries. 
It afterwards toured the States, Canada, and 

* He may fairly be said to have killed himself by his devotion to 
hia varied work in journalism during the war. 

99 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

France and then moved through our own prov- 
inces. When it came to settling the terms on 
which the Ministry and Admiralty should divide 
the profits, or stand the loss if any, Lord Beaver- 
brook agreed to what I suggested and within a 
quarter of an hour dictated the agreement be- 
tween the two Departments. 

Of course, from Lord Beaverbrook's point of 
view, that exhibition was pure propaganda, and 
the Navy owes him a great deal for having put it 
forward, pushed it through, and made it, through 
his business methods, such a huge success. I 
should add that, after touring the States in charge 
of Lieutenant Walker, E. N. (who had lost an arm 
at Zeebrugge), the whole of the pictures were pre- 
sented to the Canadian Government, and, after 
touring Canada, will find a permanent home in 
Ottawa. 

At the same interview, in which Lord Beaver- 
brook sketched out his schemes for this exhibition, 
he told me that his representatives abroad kept on 
reporting the necessity for^ a new naval film., 
which was to be the very last thing in naval cine- 
ma work. I told him it could be done if we went 
easy, and pointed out to him that the one essential 
was to carry the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Grand Fleet with us. The scheme would be still- 
born if he went against us. Lord Beaverbrook 
agreed and further suggested that, as I knew what 
arguments to use, he would be obliged if I would 
write a letter to the First Lord for him (Lord 

100 



CO-OPERATION 

Beaverbrook) to sign. This I presently did and 
handed it to Mr. Needham, his Secretary, and in 
due course it reached Sir E. Geddes, who sent it to 
me with an instruction to get busy, and see what 
could be done. 

I thereupon saw Sir Eric Geddes and asked him 
if he would write and put the proposition up to 
Sir David Beatty. * ^ No, ' ' he said ; ^ Hhe First Sea 
Lord had better do that.'' So I went to the First 
Sea Lord and showed him Lord Beaverbrook 's 
letter to Sir Eric and repeated the First Lord's 
message. But no, the First Sea Lord thought I 
had better go up myself and see the Commander- 
in-Chief and show him the letter and see what I 
could get out of him. So thoroughly enjoying the 
humour of the situation, I journeyed north, and on 
telling my friends on Sir David's staff what my 
business was they had a cheery laugh at my ex- 
pense, saying I would be ^'strafed," as the Com- 
mander-in-Chief didn't like publicity stunts. 
However, Sir David Beatty entered into the whole 
thing, and I came back with the goods in my 
pocket, i.e. I had a free hand to send my operator 
and our indefatigable Major Maddick up to the 
Fleet to get anything and everything they wanted. 
That film took some two months to make and was 
killed by the Armistice with its subsequent sur- 
render scenes. Nevertheless it afterwards did 
grand business, and Naval charities benefited ac- 
cordingly. 

Whilst I think I may honestly claim that our re- 
101 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

lations with nearly all individual papers were on 
the whole friendly, I should be overstepping the 
bounds of strict accuracy if I said the same of 
the Newspaper Proprietors' Association. This 
body, as represented by their Chairman, devel- 
oped — or shall I say voiced — the urgent desire 
clamantly expressed for more publicity and yet 
more, and whatever may have passed between Sir 
George Riddell and myself, it is but fair to add 
that the degree of publicity which was won for the 
Press as a whole was entirely due to his consist- 
ent advocacy of the need for home propaganda 
through the medium of the Press. 

Sir George thought, as no doubt he was in- 
formed by some who desired my removal, that I 
stood in the way of letting the public know what 
the Navy was doing. Such was not the case, as 
my friends in the Navy knew. However that may 
be. Sir George and I had some stormy interviews 
and also some lively conversations on the 'phone. 

When Sir Graham Greene left the Admiralty to 
go to the Ministry of Munitions, he said during 
our farewell talk, he would ask me to oblige him 
in one matter and that was to re-open communica- 
tions with Sir George Riddell, and I told him that 
nothing but my affection for him would make me 
consent to such a thing. 

However, coming out of Sir Graham Greene's 
room, I ran right into Sir George Riddell, and we 
shook hands and carried on from that time as if 
nothing had happened. From that time forward 

102 



CO-OPERATION 

my work with the Newspaper Proprietors' Asso- 
ciation was quite comfortably and easily per- 
formed, to the mutual advantage of the Press, the 
Navy, and the public. We all certainly owe Sir 
George Eiddell a great deal, and I am glad here 
to confess it. Looking back on the period of the 
war, anyone can understand how difficult it was 
to bring into some sort of agreement the naval au- 
thorities and those who were responsible for run- 
ning the newspapers of the country. This was 
the first war by sea to be fought under modem 
conditions, for Nelson and his contemporaries and 
the Sea Lords of their day knew nothing of ca- 
bles, wireless telegraphy, the penny post or penny 
newspaper, and the dangers associated with the 
unrestricted publication of news were small a 
hundred years ago compared with those which 
now exist. It was in the highest national inter- 
ests during the Great War that information which 
might be useful to the enemy should be sup- 
pressed. Secrecy in war, particularly at sea, is 
an asset of enormous value, and though I became 
involved in propaganda work, which was essen- 
tial, I was never unconscious of the point of view 
of the officers in high command at sea. Complete 
secrecy was, of course, impossible, but if the re- 
strictions on the publication of news were lifted 
beyond what may be described as the *^ safety 
line,'' plans of operations might be affected, hun- 
dreds of lives endangered, and the cause of the 

103 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Allies imperilled. I had consequently to move 
cautiously. 

On March 11, 1918, and solely on Sir George 
RiddelPs recommendation and advice, it was de- 
cided to appoint an Admiralty Press Officer, and 
it was Sir George who suggested to us that Lieu- 
tenant-Commander Beer, E.N.V.E. (then work- 
ing under the Controller's Department), would 
be a suitable man for the work. We had him 
transferred and from the moment he came and I 
took him round to all departments, he was a com- 
plete success. Naturally he was hungry for in- 
formation, but he speedily appreciated what could 
and what could not be given out to the Press. He 
was a whale for work and he never upset anybody 
and never let us down, and that is saying a great 
deal. We owed Sir George Eiddell another debt 
of gratitude for that. 

Early in 1918, however. Sir George again ap- 
proached the First Lord with a view to getting 
yet more information, and a conference was called 
at very short notice (by the N. P. A.) and held 
at the Admiralty, attended by Sir Oswyn Murray, 
Captain HaU (Director of Naval Intelligence) 
and myself. The following representatives of the 
Press were present: 

Sir George Eiddell of the Newspaper Proprie- 
tors ' Association. 

Mr. Thomas Marlowe of the Daily Mail. 

Mr. Eobert Donald of the Daily Chronicle. 

Mr. Archibald Hurd of the Daily Telegraph, 
104 



CO-OPERATION 

£epresentatives of the Times, the Morning Post 
and three or four others. 

It speedily became evident that this was an at- 
tempt to remove somebody who, it was thought, 
was standing in the way of Naval publicity, and 
in due course, and after some talk by Sir George 
Eiddell and Messrs. Marlowe and Donald, Mr. 
Marlowe proposed a motion to the effect that 
<< grave dissatisfaction was felt by the Press of 
the country at the attitude of the Admiralty to- 
wards publicity. '^ 

This was seconded by Mr. Eobert Donald, and 
it was thought that all was over, bar the shouting. 
There were a few moments of silence and then 
Mr. Hurd intervened. He stated that the Daily 
Telegraph was not dissatisfied and that he was 
not prepared to support such a resolution; that 
the Admiralty was responsible for the Fleet and 
the Fleet for the Empire, and it was for the Ad- 
miralty to decide what could or could not be pub- 
lished with safety. 

The Morning Post's representative followed, 
saying that he had instructions to say that his edi- 
tor would in all cases support the censorship and 
was content with things as they were. The re- 
maining four representatives said much the same. 
It was obvious therefore to the dissatisfied trio 
that their motion could not go through; the pro- 
ceedings were in fact a fiasco. 

After that we settled down to business on a 
friendly basis with the result that it was agreed 

105 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

we should appoint a British Press representative 
to the Grand Fleet; set up a Press Panel at vari- 
ous bases and give the Press various records and 
reports to browse over and write up. I had long 
been trying to get a well-known British writer to 
join the Grand Fleet as resident writer for the 
whole British Press, but this gentleman, who was 
a commander R.N.V.E., had other fish to fry in 
London and conveniently got out of going there. 
Without revealing his name, I informed the con- 
ference of this. They affected to be annoyed at 
not being consulted as to who the representative 
was to be, so I cried ^^peccavi'V and bided my 
time, as I well knew that the Press would never 
agree among themselves in the choice of a man. 
In due course the N.P.A. wrote me and informed 
me that they were unable, owing to shortage of 
staffs, &c., to secure anybody to go to the Grand 
Fleet. My man was not onli/ a newspaper writer; 
he was very versatile, had written much priceless 
propaganda matter and some revues or plays, and 
would have filled the bill to perfection, but, for 
reasons of his own, he wriggled out of the offer. 
From the date of that Conference, the ^*head 
hunting,'' if I may so put it, ceased, and I was 
allowed to get on with my work without, at all 
events, any frontal attacks, and my relations with 
the N.P.A. were all that could be desired, Press 
Panels were set up at various places, but it so 
happened that they were never required, as no 
serious naval action occurred again with the ex- 

106 



CO-OPERATION 

oeption of Zeebrugge, and in that case the censor- 
ship was practically lifted altogether, the Press 
being virtually given a free run. 

I wind up this chapter by assuring Sir George 
that at this distance of time I have forgotten all 
the little * incidents" between us and remember 
only his extraordinarily valuable work on behalf 
of the Press and so, indirectly, of the public. The 
Press may rest assured that it has in him a good 
champion, and if perhaps there is more fortiter 
in re than suaviter in mo do, well, we all have our 
little failings. I daresay that being overtired I 
was not as patient and accommodating as I might 
have been. Nevertheless Sir George will permit 
me a slight chuckle at the sight of him as the 
champion of the censorship at the Peace Confer- 
ence! 



107 



CHAPTER VIII 

ZEEBRUGGE AND THE CENSORSHIP 

Precautions taken in respect of the commandeering of the 
ferry-boats Iris and Daffodil — The news of the attack — 
Mr. Percival Gibbon's account — Sir Roger Keyes' thanks 
for Lord Jellicoe's support during the preparations for 
the attack and his desire that this support should be 
known— Publication in the newspapers — Inquiry by detec- 
tives as to the source of the paragraph — Interview with 
Sir Eric Geddes — I am told to go on leave immediately 
— I am asked to return. 

One day very early in 1918 I heard a lieutenant- 
commander asking one of my assistants, who sat 
just behind me, what papers were printed in Liver- 
pool, so I inquired what he wanted to know this 
for. He said he could not tell me, upon which I 
asked him what department he came from, and on 
his giving me the desired information I told him he 
might go away and I would find out what was in 
the wind, and would do whatever was required 
with the newspapers, as Press matters were my 
particular business. 

I went at once to the Deputy-Chief of Staff and 
told him what had happened, and he, of course, 
told me of the proposed taking up by the Ad- 
miralty of the Mersey ferry-boats Iris and Daffo- 

108 



ZEEBRUGGE AND THE CENSORSHIP 

dil, and the great necessity for secrecy as to their 
use in connection with the proposed Zeebrugge op- 
erations. So I there and then told him that it 
would be useless to tell only the Liverpool papers, 
since the removal of these ferry-boats would in- 
convenience and be known to some million or two 
of people in Liverpool, Birkenhead, and right away 
to Manchester and Salford, each of which places 
had one or more newspapers of its own to which 
disgruntled folk would be sure to write letters of 
questioning or complaint. This naturally was not 
a point of view that had presented itself to him, 
and he therefore asked me to take the matter in 
hand and do what I considered necessary. I there- 
upon went and saw the Directors of the Press Bu- 
reau, and we all agreed that to circularise the pa- 
per in that district only would be no good, as if 
anybody in any other part of the country saw fit 
to drop a casual remark into any paper the se- 
crecy which was so urgently necessary would be 
jeopardised or lost. 

It was decided, therefore, to circularise the 
whole Press confidentially, and surely a wiser de- 
cision never was taken, for in the three months of 
preparation for the raids on Zeebrugge and Os- 
tend, and in spite of the two attempts which were 
made, never a sign or trace of the news got out. 
Not the vaguest reference was ever made, and the 
Press, as was invariably the case when it was told 
what was expected of it, loyally carried out the 
wishes of the Admiralty. 

109 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Having fixed the Press, I tlien went and saw the 
Speaker of the House of Commons and told him 
what was going on, and begged him to stop any 
questions being put on the *^ paper," which I knew 
might very well happen. He agreed to see any 
member who wished to put any question on the 
commandeering of these two vessels, and tell him 
the circumstances and to ask him to refrain. 

The months went by, and the excitement was 
very intense among those few of us who knew 
what to expect when the tide and moon suited. We 
had two disappointments owing to the conditions 
proving unfavourable after the start had been 
made, and then the glorious news of the Zee- 
brugge attack came to hand at last. 

That same afternoon, at about four o'clock, 
Percival Gibbon, a brilliant war journalist, came 
to me with a letter of introduction from a Fleet 
Street editor asking me if I could get him a job. 
Lieutenant-Commander Beer was already over- 
worked, so I jumped at the chance of getting Gib- 
bon. I waited about in the passage till I could 
waylay the First Lord, and then told him that I 
wanted to take on Gibbon. The First Lord merely 
asked me if I were sure he was the best man for 
the job of writing up this epic story, and on my 
telling him there was none better he said, **A11 
right, engage him. ' ' Not wanting to put the First 
Lord in the cart, I called his attention to what he 
had said in the House of Commons as to not em- 
ploying anybody of military age who was fit. He 

110 



ZEEBRUGGE AND THE CENSORSHIP 

closed me up by saying-, '^That was in the ^6^5^; 
this is now; engage him." So off I went, very 
pleased with myself. He was made a major in the 
Marines, and he left for Dover at seven o'clock 
that night. He was shown everything next morn- 
ing; he wrote his story down there at Dover; got 
Sir Eoger Keyes to agree to it, and was back in 
London that night about eleven o'clock. He sat 
up all night typing it out, and then went down 
again to Dover to attend to some considerable 
alterations which Sir Eoger Keyes required made, 
as more detailed information had come to hand. 
These he 'phoned up to me, and, as he had left 
me a typed copy, the alterations were embodied 
and handed out to the Press at eleven p.m. that 
same night, namely, forty-eight hours after the ac- 
tual landing had taken place. 

It was a fine piece of work on the part of Gib- 
bon. Lord ! how I regretted we had not had him 
or someone like him before. "What would not such 
a man have done with Jutland, and many another 
scrap which went practically unrecorded save for 
the official despatches. However, the Navy would 
never have accepted a real war correspondent in 
the early days, no matter how much he might have 
been censored! 

Having given out our official narrative (Gib- 
bon's), the newly-formed Press Panel, very elas- 
tic this time, were given a free run at Dover, and 
got their own personal narrative into their jour- 
nals on the same day as Gibbon's narrative, but I 

111 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

think every single paper, almost witliont excep- 
tion, recognised the value of the official narra- 
tive, for all printed it. 

About a month or two after the Zeebrugge at- 
tack there was a curious sequel, so far as I was 
concerned. Paymaster-Captain Share, who had 
been Sir John Jellicoe's secretary both in the 
Grand Fleet and during his period of office as 
First Sea Lord, came into my room one morning, 
and showed me a letter from Sir Koger Keyes 
saying he had written to Lord Jellicoe on private 
matters, and he said he had taken the opportunity 
of thanking him for the support that he had given 
him during the preparation of the plans, and he 
felt he owed much of the success to that support, 
adding at the end: *^I should like this to be 
known." 

I merely remarked: ''Well, it's very easy to 
make it known, ' ' and asked him if he had any ob- 
jection to my showing the letter to Beer, the Ad- 
miralty Press Officer. He having no objection, I 
rang for Beer to come down, when I showed him 
the letter, and we discussed how we should handle 
it. We agreed to paraphrase it and put it into 
the hands of the Press Association, as Beer said, 
' ' It is extremely interesting, and the public would 
like to know it.'' This was done, and this is the 
paragraph as it appeared : 

Viee-Admiral Sir Roger Keyes has received a message of 
congratulation on the success of the Zeebrugge-Ostend opera- 
tion from Admiral Lord Jellicoe. It is interesting to note 

112 



ZEEBRUGGE AND THE CENSORSHIP 

that the plans for the enterprise were laid before Lord Jellicoe 
while he was First Sea Lord. He approved of them, and this 
fact helped and encouraged Sir Roger Keyes through many 
difficulties. 

I thouglit no more about it. I then went to my 
home in the country for the week-end, and on my 
return heard that detectives had been worrrying 
the Press Association to find out where they got 
this paragraph. 

This was itself an absolutely unjustifiable pro- 
ceeding and a gross abuse of power, since it could 
not be argued that the paragraph gave any in- 
formation to the enemy, nor could it be said to 
be disheartening our own people, or whatever was 
the wording of D.O.R.A., under which only could 
such an act have any sanction. I rang up at once 
the Press Association and told them to tell the 
detectives that I had given them the paragraph, 
which, indeed, could have been found out by send- 
ing to my office, since it was my business to know 
what naval matter was in the Press. However, 
the inquisitorial method was preferred to the ob- 
vious and straightforward way; but whoever ad- 
vised it gave bad advice. 

I had been in about twenty minutes — it would 
be about 10:20 a.m. — when I was told the First 
Lord wanted me, so I went along to his room, 
when the following remarks were exchanged : 

First Lord: Why did you pass that article about 
Jellicoe? 

Chief Censor: I didn't pass it; I circulated it. 
113 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

First Lord: Wliy did you circulate it! 

Chief Censor: Because I considered it was of 
interest to the public. 

First Lord: You have no business to boost any 
admiral. 

Chief Censor: I am not boosting any admiral. 

First Lord: You can go on leave immediately. 

Chief Censor: Thank you! 

I carefully refrained from telling him anything 
about the letter from Sir Roger Keyes. I at once 
informed the Naval Secretary to the First Lord 
and the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff that I was 
going away, and my assistant would carry on in 
my place. 

The chairman of the company with which I 
was working before the war happening to be in 
town, I asked him if he had any objection to my 
returning to work with the firm right away, and he 
agreed. I also went to the Air Board and put 
myself down for a job there if there should be 
one in which it was considered I could be of use. 
I then retired to my flat and lunched with my 
chairman. In the middle of lunch I was rung up 
by Edward Packe, one of the First Lord's private 
secretaries (and a particularly close friend of 
mine), who asked me not to go out of town. I re- 
plied that I badly needed a slight holiday and I 
was going down home that afternoon. There en- 
sued pourparlers, and eventually I agreed not to 
go till I had seen him, and I went to his house, and 
there yielded to the pressure he and his wife ex- 

114 



ZEEBRUGGE AND THE CENSORSHIP 

erted on me on condition that the Secretary of the 
Admiralty (Sir Oswyn Murray) should come and 
dine with me that night, which he did. In the end 
letters were exchanged between myself, Sir Eric 
Geddes, and Admiral Sir Eosslyn Wemyss, and 
I returned to work after only forty-two hours' 
holiday ! 

The letters were as follows: 

9, Yictoria-street, Westminster, S. W., 

May 7, 1918. 
FtesT Lord: — 

I have had the privilege of a talk with Sir Oswyn Murray 
to-night, and he tells me that in his opinion you are satisfied 
that in circulating the paragraph in reference to the late 
First Sea Lord I had no ulterior object of advertising him 
at the expense of those now in power; on the other hand, 
you consider I was guilty of an error of judgment in cir- 
culating the paragraph without reference to you or to the 
First Sea Lord. If this is the case I am prepared to express 
regret for this error in judgment, but at the same time I can- 
not help expressing still more regret that you should have 
thought me capable of disloyalty to the present Board, which 
nothing that I have done in the last three years and nine 
months has warranted. 

(Signed) D. Brownrigg. 

7, Savile Row, W. 
Dear First Sea Lord: — 

I am enjoying a holiday peremptorily forced on me by the 
First Lord yesterday, and none the less welcome on that 
account; I assume it is to be permanent, and therefore I write 
to you to say good-bye. 

The First Lord yesterday was courteous and kind enough 
to accuse me of "boosting an Admiral" when criticising my 
conduct in circulating the paragraph about J. R. J. 

115 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

You know me much better than the other three First Sea 
Lords I have served under, and I feel quite confident that you 
will acquit me of intriguing in any shape or form — for or 
against anybody; it is utterly foreign to my nature and re- 
pugnant to me. 

I cannot think either that the paragraph in question can 
have hurt you; and I am rather at a loss to understand the 
First Lord's attitude of mind towards it, seeing that he was 
First Lord then — as now, and it was inconceivable to me that 
as head of the Navy he could object to a good word being said 
of any admiral. However that may be, I wish to say that if, 
as I fear may be the case from the First Lord's action, you 
have been in any way annoyed by my action, I pray you be- 
lieve that nothing could hurt me more than to think that any- 
thing I have done — or left undone — had worried you. 

I do not ask you to absolve me of ulterior motives, for I 
know that you are incapable of thinking that possible. — Yours 
ever, (Signed) D. Brownrigg. 

On the following day I received a reply from 
tlie First Lord, in which he returned to the at- 
tack, telling me that with my experience of Press 
work I ought to have known how this paragraph 
would be used and interpreted; and that I was 
4n fact initiating a personal advertisement which, 
I am sure. Lord Jellicoe would be the last to 
wish." He disclaimed having accused me of dis- 
loyalty to the new Admiralty administration. 
'^This I do not do,'' he added, ^^but I am glad to 
have and accept your assurance that you are in- 
capable of it, and also the testimony of your 
friends to the same effect.'' He added that he 
would be glad if I would resume my work as Chief 
Censor, being confident that he could rely upon 

116 



ZEEBRUGGE AND THE CENSORSHIP 

**a more discriminating judgment'' on my part in 
future. I received also a short and charming note 
from Sir Oswyn Murray, in which he said, **It 
has been a great happiness to-day to realise that 
the Chief Censor's office is doing * business as 
usual.' " 

I cannot understand now why objection was 
taken to the paragraph. It did not detract in any 
way from anybody then at the Admiralty, and I 
knew perfectly well that the facts must be known 
some day. But I never expected to be vindicated 
so speedily as I was by the statement in Lord 
Jellicoe 's book, in which he tells how, in Septem- 
ber, 1917, he gave directions to the Plans Di- 
vision, of which Sir Eoger Keyes was the head, 
to prepare for blocking Zeebrugge. 

Moreover, I was well aware that Admiral Ba- 
con had, as he has since revealed with much de- 
tail, done a lot of preparation also, and was, in- 
deed, going to carry out an attack in February if 
he had not in the meantime been superseded by 
Sir Eoger Keyes. So I never imagined that there 
could be any objection to the truth being put out. 



117 



CHAPTEEIX 

AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND SOME OTHERS 

Mr. Alfred Noyes and the "Mystery Ships" — Publication 
stopped — Sir Henry Newbolt and "Christmas Sales" — 
Mr. W. L. Wyllie's patience — An enterprising pub- 
lisher — Fiction and Fact — A Censorship "snag" — The 
"Q" boats' imaginary baby — A narrow escape — ^Mr. 
Muirhead Bone and his brother as collaborators — "Sub- 
stories" — Lord Jellicoe as author — The end of the Censor- 
ship. 

I HAVE pleasant recollections of my dealings 
with each and all of the above classes of — what 
shall I call them? — intellectuals, but I ask myself 
what their feelings are towards the individual 
whose office seemed always to be to thwart them, 
and certainly almost always to be to irritate them, 
and — would any admit it? — sometimes to help 
them. 

The first who looms large in my memory, per- 
haps because he was, I think, the first author to 
be employed by Government to write naval mat- 
ter into propaganda form, is Alfred Noyes. He 
was sent pretty well everywhere he wished to go 
in order to obtain material for writing up the Aux- 
iliary, Patrol Service, &c. I pointed out to him 
that Kipling had already done this in ^^The 
Fringes of the Fleet." He agreed, but said he 

118 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

would treat it from a different angle. I agreed 
to that, and off lie went. 

He produced a lot of fine stuff,^ though perhaps 
we weren^t trained to appreciate it at its real value 
at the time. His next effort on the Navy's behalf 
was a bit more risky (not risque), so to speak. 
** Mystery Ships, or Trapping the U-Boats,'' I 
believe it was called. I fought the cause of that 
work, though I don't believe Mr. Noyes ever be- 
lieved me when I assured him of this. I suppose 
that a poet can be sceptical as to the truth of a 
statement when it is made by a Chief Censor. 
Anyhow, I fought the cause of that book right up 
to two separate First Sea Lords, got it past one, 
and bumped it into another, had it, so to speak, 
thrown back at my head, and, still fighting, finally 
got an unwilling consent for its publication in a 
very expurgated form. 

Presently it appeared on the bookstalls without 
my having seen it in final proof form, and (from 
the artists' and publishers' and book-stalls' point 
of view), with a beautifully-illustrated cover, 
showing in colour what the artist conceived to be 
a ** mystery ship." 

That tore it! 

The first that I knew of it was when I was sent 
for and put on the carpet before various high 
and somewhat querulous, not to say peevish, of- 
ficials, who asked me — well, it may be guessed 
what the trend of the crisp questions was! All 
I could say was that it had been understood be- 

119 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

tween Mr. Noyes and myself that I was to see the 
book in final proof form before it was let loose 
**in time for the Christmas sales." (That ghast- 
ly expression haunts me yet !) 

There were hurried and hectic interviews be- 
tween Mr. Noyes and myself, and, I suppose, be- 
tween the poet and the publisher. The net re- 
sult was that the book was taken off sale and, I 
suppose, involved one or the other, or both of 
them, in considerable monetary loss, which I re- 
gret. I believe they will both admit, however, that 
it was due to a misunderstanding between them 
that this regrettable incident took place. But it 
cost me the regard of Mr. Noyes, and, as I have 
not many poets among my acquaintances, the case 
sticks in my mind and somewhat rankles. 

With Sir Henry Newbolt, also, I had long and 
intimate and, to me at all events, very pleasant 
relations. He worked on and oif for about a year 
in one of my rooms in the old building of the 
Admiralty, and he was given access to all neces- 
sary documents in the preparation of his book on 
our anti-submarine work. During the latter part 
of 1918 *^ Christmas sales'^ began to loom large 
on his horizon, and after a somewhat protracted 
discussion with me as to the wisdom or otherwise 
of publishing certain details that I maintained 
would be better omitted, I am glad to think that 
he got his book published in time to secure this 
coveted market. I hope and believe that it had 
a well-merited success, since I personally received 

120 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

three copies from kind friends for presentation 
to my son and one for my own Christmas delecta- 
tion — as though I did not know it by heart back- 
wards and forwards, from cover to cover ! 

With Mr. W. L. Wyllie, E.A., as an author I 
had much correspondence, and the book which he 
finally produced, beautifully illustrated — and 
which is, in my opinion, in its particular style, one 
of the best books produced during the war — ^lay 
in a httle pigeon-hole, decently curtained off from 
curious gaze, for nearly three years with the le- 
gend over it, *^R.I.P." It was with real pleasure 
that I eventually released it, for though the de- 
lay must have been trying both to him and to his 
publishers, there was never an acid nor an im- 
patient word from this delightful gentleman — 
nothing but ready acquiescence in what was con- 
sidered to be the best interests of the Navy and 
the country. 

In noticeable contrast with this fine standpoint 
was that of a publisher who had secured publica- 
tion of a translation of a story by a German U- 
boat captain of his cruise. The book was replete 
with lies, and told horrible stories of British du- 
plicity and brutality, referred to the carrying of 
troops by our hospital ships, and contained other 
features entirely objectionable and undesirable 
for publication in this country or under our aegis. ^ 
I submitted the book to half a dozen different au- 
thorities after I had reached my own decision on 
it, but without putting my views forward, so that 

121 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

each person gave entirely independent and un- 
biassed views on it. They were each and all of 
opinion that it was a fine piece of German propa- 
ganda, and as such should not be given the bene- 
fit of circulation through British channels. This 
publisher returned to the charge over and over 
again, and I think felt he had been harshly and 
stupidly treated. At least that is what I was able 
to gather as the correspondence grew. 

Another publisher, I remember, wrote to the 
First Lord (Sir E. Carson) suggesting that he 
should produce a book on the Navy. His letter 
was sent to me to handle. I wrote to him, asking 
him to come and see me, which he did. He then 
unfolded as much of his plan as he had outlined 
in his head. It was this : he had virtually secured 

Mr. , one of our most popular writers. I 

daren't give his name for fear of getting mixed 
up in some sort of controversy, but he has writ- 
ten on the Navy, on animals, on history, and he 
has published most delightful verse, and he has 
frequently been named as the man for the Poet 
Laureateship during the war. He also mentioned 

Mr. , a fine artist, who would illustrate the 

work and make it a very attractive proposition. 

He then ingenuously set about asking me how 
I should propose to subdivide this work. I pleaded 
that that was not my metier, and that having but 
scant literary knowledge and less turn for book- 
making my opinion could not be worth much. How- 
ever, he insisted, and in the course of a pleasant 

122 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

half -hour we got out the rough chapter headings 
for such a work as he proposed. I assured him 
that as soon as he had got out a schedule of dates 
with his two distinguished men he could rely upon 
my giving them every possible facility. AJfter ten 
days or so he wrote and said that the author could 
not be got, nor could the artist. What did I sug- 
gest? 

I suggested a further interview, at which I en- 
deavoured to hide my surprise at his brazen cheek, 
and suggested one or two other authors who knew 
the Navy from A to Z. One of them wrote to me, 
and thanked me for having put the business his 
way, and regretted that he was too busy, as he 
would much have liked the job. Finally I sug- 
gested to this persevering publisher another au- 
thor whose books I had read and thoroughly en- 
joyed, and though he did not, so far as I was 
aware, know much of the Navy, he certainly knew 
all about the sea, and Mr. Publisher eventually 
secured him. 

This author and I presently met in my office, 
and we had a very pleasant series of interviews 
which, I believe, both interested and amused him 
as much as they did me. On one occasion he called, 
bringing me a letter from another artist or author 
(I forget which) saying that, in the opinion of 
the writer, the Admiralty were treating my au- 
thor shamefully, as they should be paying him at 
least £5,000 for taking on this job. I opened my 
eyes a bit, and asked him if he was under the im- 

123 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

pression he was writing the book by Admiralty 
request? Yes. He certainly thought it was some- 
thing of that sort. * ^ That being the case, '' I re- 
marked, ^*you had better sit down and make your- 
self comfortable and read the contents of the dos- 
sier of correspondence from cover to cover,'' 
which he diligently did. He was amazed as he 
traced the developments of the book from the first 
suggestion onwards, and realised for the first time 
that things are not always what they seem! I 
leave it at that ! 

What really matters, however, is that he fin- 
ished a capital book, and, in sending me a copy, he 
inscribed it: ^^With the author's gratitude and in 
memory of the fascinating days spent in touch 
with the Kavy,'' and enclosed a letter as follows: 
'^Here is the book which I should not have had the 
opportunity of writing but for your intervention. 
"Will you accept it and forget the various difficul- 
ties it entailed at a time when the war and its 
concomitant burdens occupied all our thoughts?" 
For my part, I have nothing but gratitude to him 
for his acceptance of a difficult position and for 
success in handling a task from which many would 
have shrunk. 

Mr. Publisher never wrote to me any more, and 
he assuredly never will now (at least, I hardly 
think so). 

Of the making of books there is no end. So 
many books passed through my hands during 
those whirlwind four and-a-half years that to at- 

124 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

tempt to write even a scrap about all of them 
would fill a volume, yet each and all presented an 
interesting situation to be dealt with (usually in 
a hurry) with the author *^and /or" (as we say 
on bills of lading) publisher waiting outside the 
door. But I will just touch on one or two that 
stand out in the long list for one reason or an- 
other. 

Two books prepared by a gifted mother from 
notes supplied by her son stand out as real chap- 
ters in a lad's life; the titles tell the whole story, 
and what a story ! * ' From Dartmouth to the Dar- 
danelles '' and the sequel ^^From Snotty to Sub." 
I had had the privilege of being able to be of some 
slight service to the lady before the question of 
any authorship arose ; and we finished up our lit- 
erary relationship on good terms, although my 
views as to what could and could not properly be 
published did not at once appeal to her and we 
had had at times some acid correspondence. She 
wrote in the front of the book she sent me, *^With 
most grateful thanks for much kind sympathy and 
valuable help." 

I think one of the rocks we split upon was the 
fact that the lad had evidently kept a diary whilst 
in the Grand Fleet, which was against orders. 
This may sound strange and no doubt history will 
be the poorer in consequence, but the order was 
given after the Jutland Battle, when a chest of 
drawers, from one of the sunken ships, was found 
floating about; it contained a very complete oflS- 

125 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE .NAVAL CENSOR 

cer's diary, which might equally have fallen into 
German hands. 

The authors always produced the same plea, 
''But I am under contract with my publisher to 
produce by such and such a time.'' I pray God 
I may not find myself in a similar position in re- ' 
gard to this assortment of trifles ! It was useless 
to point out that it was through no fault of mine 
that they had become involved in difficulties with 
publishers. They merely thought me a soulless 
blockhead. 

One naval author, whose work comes before 
my mental vision, had produced some really ex- 
cellent stories — ^pure fiction. He was much in- 
censed because I would not pass one of them in 
which one of our small craft was represented as 
having captured a German submarine, and hauled 
the captain into the ward-room, where a mock 
court-martial had been held on him, by which he 
had been sentenced to death — a sentence duly car- 
ried out by the First Lieutenant! 

This would most certainly have been twisted and 
distorted by the Germans into a semblance of 
fact and used as propaganda against us, as was / 
indeed done in the case of the fantastic story \ 
(which I passed) written by the Naval Corre- 
spondent of the Times, in which he said that one 
of the successful ruses employed against German 
submarines was that of having a man dressed up 
as a woman on board a '^Q'' boat, with a baby in 
her arms. When the German submarine came 

12G 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

alongside, the baby — in reality a bomb — was flung 
down the open hatch of the submarine, and fin- 
ished her off with all hands. Whether this fable 
was seriously believed by the Germans, I doubt, 
but they certainly quoted it as another instance of 
our unfair methods of fighting. 

I suppose I may fairly be *^ strafed" for having 
passed it, but in those strenuous days one had 
to allow oneself a laugh now and again! Here 
I may mention that the caption ^^ Passed by Cen- 
sor" was never any guarantee of truth. It merely 
meant that in my judgment the statements could 
not he of benefit to our enemies, or harmful to the 
interests of this country. I frequently noticed 
that writers and others claimed, or assumed in 
advertisements of books, &c., that the official stamp 
** Passed by Censor," was a guarantee of official 
accuracy, which, of course, was not the case. It 
was not a censor's business to do more than pre- 
vent anything being published, fact or fiction, 
which might serve the ends of our enemies. 

Of authors who are journalists also there are a 
goodly number I could pass in review. Their 
names are known in every household in the coun- 
try which takes any interest in the Navy, Archi- 
bald Hurd, Cope Cornford, H. C. Ferraby, ** Jack- 
staff , ' ' and many others. 

Hurd I had known many years, since the days 
when Sir John Fisher was Commander-in-Chief at 
Portsmouth and had ordered me to write him a 
report on the cooking arrangements of the Navy, 

127 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

which report Mr. Hurd, with my glad consent, pur- 
loined and published. He has done me many a 
good turn since and he will cry quits with me over 
this, I hope! 

With regard to Mr. Ferraby, I remember that 
this enterprising young man was very anxious to 
go for a cruise in a submarine during the summer 
of 1918. I promised to fix it up for him and did 
so, with the utmost secrecy — one always had to be 
very particular not to let another man know what 
was being arranged for his friend and rival. In 
due course I was told by our Submarine Depart- 
ment that a boat would be leaving Harwich for 
an eight to ten days' cruise and arrangements 
would be made to accommodate Mr. Ferraby, for 
which I expressed my gratitude. Just as the offi- 
cer was going out of my room, I asked him what 
work the boat was going on, and was told she was 
going on patrol inside the German minefields. I 
gave the matter a moment's thought and foresaw 
all the troubles that might happen (I naturally 
had not consulted my Chiefs, being pretty sure of 
my ground by this time), and I decided there and 
then not to send Mr. Ferraby on that trip. It 
turned out well for him that he did not go, for that 
submarine never returned. 

I told him this one evening at a cheery little 
farewell dinner which was given at the * * Cheshire 
Cheese'' to Admiral Hall by the Press men who 
used to attend his weekly Press conferences, and 
to which I was also invited, perhaps on the prind- 

128 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

pie of **bane and antidote^' — I leave it to tlie 
reader to judge which was the antidote. In his 
speech Mr. Ferraby told his confreres this story 
and toasted me as '*our best loved enemy.*' 

I have told elsewhere of the disappoinment I 
had suffered in connection with the writing of the 
story of the Mercantile Marine. But I had by no 
means given up the idea of getting this piece of 
work done, so when in the Spring of 1918 Mr. 
Muirhead Bone (with whom I was very well ac- 
quainted, being a fervent admirer of his art) came 
to me and suggested that he and his brother, Cap- 
tain David Bone, of the Anchor Line, should joint- 
ly write such a book, it need not be added that I 
literally jumped at the notion. I had read Captain 
David Bone's *^The Brass Bounder," as thrilling 
a simple story of the sea as it is possible to read, 
and as he had been three times torpedoed in the 
war, and was at the moment on leave waiting for 
a new ship, it seemed to me an ideal arrangement. 

Captain David Bone presently came along and 
saw me and I arranged with the two brothers that 
they should go everywhere in this country where 
men and ships of the Merchant Service were to be 
found, whether working in conjunction with the 
Royal Navy, or, as in many cases, on their own. I 
wrote at once to Messrs. Henderson Brothers ask- 
ing them to lend his services to us for three months 
definite, to which they readily agreed and within 
a week the brothers set out on their travels. I saw 
but little of them, though I heard from them from 

129 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

time to time, and presently Captain Bone, finding 
he had got himself involved in a longer job than 
he had reckoned on, asked me to get him an exten- 
sion of leave. 

This was done and the work completed and Cap- 
tain Bone sailed away on his company's business, 
and this work will, I feel confident, repay me for 
any little trouble that I have taken. It forms 
a really worthy record of the magnificent tale of 
heroism and devotion of the officers and men of 
the Mercantile Marine. 

Of ^* Jackstaff," otherwise J. J. Bennett, I have 
this much to say. He was out with me in de- 
stroyers in 1898 and 1899, and he was both per- 
sistent in those days and pleasant. He is no less 
so to-day. 

When Sir John Jellicoe came down from the 
Grand Fleet to the Admiralty, he brought with 
him ^^Bartimeus" and told me that I was to use 
him for writing anything required for the Press. 
I had never met * ^ Bartimeus, ' ' though I had of 
course read his books and enjoyed them. On see- 
ing this frail young officer and asking him what 
he had been doing in the Grand Fleet with Sir 
John, he said he had been in the ** Foreword De- 
partment, " as I trust that those who have invited 
** Forewords" from the First Commander-in- 
Chief of the Grand Fleet will duly note. I soon 
got busy on him and I think he must have hated 
me when I had suddenly to blow in and tell him 
to fling himself into the train and go away and 

130 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

write up such and such an incident, giving him 
my view as to its treatment, e.g., *'sob-stoiy*' — 
**not too much ' slush' '' (rather a weakness of his 
— this latter), *^ subject to be handled with dignity 
— no slang.'' 

Though his artistic soul may have resented 
these methods, savouring of hack- journalism, he 
remained cheery and always ** delivered the 
goods." If we sometimes didn't see eye to eve 
as to the excursions into the realms of ** slush," we 
have had (apart from the said jobs he has done 
for me) many a good laugh together. His **Navy' 
That Flies" articles were really excellent, and 
nearly every paper in the country printed them 
in extenso. One notable exception was the paper 
belonging to one of our most caustic critics who 
said that they hadn't been consulted as to how 
many words they could find room for, and that it 
wasn't the sort of stuff they wanted. They want- 
ed to get the matter for themselves and write it 
up in their own way and a lot more to the same 
effect, which I already knew by heart. Our joy 
was great when some four or five weeks later this 
paper reprinted the articles word for word, copied 
from an American newspaper. 

Whatever fault ^^Bartimeus" may have had to 
find with me for harshness or crudity in criticism, 
he very generously forgave me, I hope, as in send- 
ing me a copy of his novel (and I gave him some 
wholesome advice in regard to his attitude to- 
wards critics) he addressed me as ** Chief Censor 

131 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

and Chief Critic. ' ' I am glad to have met him and 
I hope his real literary ability will bubble np again 
presently. Incidentally he will probably prefer 
his * * slush ' ' to my * * tripe ' ' ! 

The last author to whom I will refer is Lord 
Jellicoe. I had known for six or more months 
(long before any criticisms by amateur and ill-in- 
formed writers of the Battle of Jutland had been 
published) that he was writing a book, describing 
the organisation and training of the Grand Fleet 
and so on during his arduous period as Command- 
er-in-Chief, but it came as a bit of a shock to me 
when, somewhere about the middle of December, 
1918 (after the armistice), I received a bundle of 
proofs and a letter asking me if I would go 
through them and see if there was anything ob- 
jectionable in them. Before starting in on them 
I wrote back and said that as there was now no 
question of censorship (this had been entirely 
removed since November 20), why was it neces- 
sary for me to go through the book? I thought 
that I had got clear of proofs, &c., for the rest of 
my natural life, having been satiated with them 
for the last four and a half years. 

The reply I got was flattering, and left me, as 
ex-Chief Naval Censor, no option but to get to 
work, which I did without delay, as, according to 
plan, the publishers were waiting for the proofs. 
There was not much with which I could find fault, 
but I pointed out to Lord Jellicoe certain techni- 
cal passages that betrayed things not yet ripe for 

132 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

publicity, and I got a few statements deleted or 
altered. I worked all through my short Christ- 
mas holiday at that, and sent the proofs back to 
him in good time. 

Meanwhile, I had been consulted as to the pos- 
sibility or the advisability of attempting to stop 
the publication of the book, and my advice had 
been given as though I had been unaware of the 
fact that Lord Jellicoe had a book preparing for 
the press, and was to the effect that he could not 
be stopped publishing it, if he was determined to 
do so, and that therefore it was better to say noth- 
ing or to give a reluctant consent. In sending me 
a copy Lord Jellicoe wrote in the cover; **With 
grateful thanks'' — ample reward for whatever I 
had done in the matter. 

He has been much criticised for writing this 
book, but I do not see that it has done anything 
but good. The public has been told for the first 
time of the wonderful way in which he created 
the Grand Fleet out of the elements he took over 
on August 4, 1914, and has learnt the whole and 
complete facts of the Jutland battle. The book is 
so modest in tone and generous in awarding praise 
that it cannot raise a feeling of resentment in any- 
body. We live in days of such tremendous rapid- 
ity, what with the telephone, wireless, cables, fast 
trafl&c, &c., that our minds receive many thousands 
of impressions daily. Unless, therefore, contem- 
porary facts are written down fairly quickly they 
will be wiped off the tablets of our memory and 

133 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

the rush of fast-moving world events will crowd 
them out. Posterity will then be robbed of the 
priceless benefit of records such as we have had 
handed down to us by the sailors of Nelson 's day. 
The very fact of publication produces a crop of 
correspondence, all of which will help the historian 
of the future. 

We may all hope that books written by the great 
men in this war will be characterised by the same 
modesty and generosity to others as that of Lord 
Jellicoe. 

I cannot refrain from telling the following story 
as illustrating the peculiarly detached attitude of 
publishers from public events. About January of 
1919 a friend of mine brought me the manuscript 
of a book intended for publication and asked me if 
I ** thought it was all right.'' I said that there 
was now no censorship, and suggested offering it 
to a publisher. When the publisher read the book 
he said it was excellent, but of course the Censor 
must be consulted. So the would-be author in- 
formed the publisher that there was now no cen- 
sorship. The publisher expressed extreme sur- 
prise and said he was unaware of that fact. 

I append the notice, which was cabled to all our 
colonies and dependencies on November 18, 1918, 
i.e., as soon as the German capital ships and sub- 
marines had commenced to surrender. When it 
was evident that the Germans were going to carry 
out the naval terms of the armistice I got author- 
ity from the First Lord and First Sea Lord to re- 

134 



AUTHORS, PUBLISHERS AND OTHERS 

move our naval censorship entirely, and ttds was 
done without waiting for any Cabinet sanction, 
which solemnly came along some days afterwards. 
For some reason, best known to the Press, all the 
newspapers, with two or three exceptions, notably 
The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, inserted 
the notice in small print, and most of them in that 
part of the paper in which it would be almost sure 
to escape notice! I really believe they resented 
losing their whipping-boy in the shape of the Na- 
val Censor. They might at least have had the 
courtesy and decency to say, *'Well, at all events, 
this irritating restriction on our freedom is re- 
moved at the earliest possible moment,'' but they 
did not do any such thing. 

Serial No.— C. 9557. 
PRESS BUREAU, 7:15 p.m. 
18th November, 1918. 

The Secretary of the Admiralty makes the following an- 
nouncement : 

After twelve noon on Wednesday, 20th November, the cen- 
sorship on all naval articles, photographs, &c., will be removed. 
The Press, authors, artists, photographers, and cinematogra- 
phers need not submit anything to naval censorship, that is to 
say, they will revert to their pre-war practices. 

The censorship on all naval books, articles, &c., held up dur- 
ing the war will be taken off as from twelve noon on Wednes- 
day, 20th. 



135 



CHAPTER X 

PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTEIES 

"Bouquets" for American journalists — A memory of Pekin — 
"My dear Mr. Tuohy" — The Fleet Press Message — "Bright 
and French" — Mr. Charles Grasty's "discoveries" — ^An 
Anglo-American difficulty — The problem of a wife — An 
omitted invitation — A ten-minute interview with the First 
Sea Lord — Two French journalists — "What is the British 
Navy doing?" — An American naval commission — Persona 
Grata in the British Fleet — A Censor's error of judgment. 

This chapter deals almost entirely with Ameri- 
can journalists, whose country, doubtless for good 
reasons, never was an Ally of ours, but merely 
an ^^xlssociated Power", according to the deci- 
sion of her Government. I can, however, say 
quite honestly that several of her journalists long 
before the United States came into the war were 
in effect Allies, and after she came in practically 
cUl became effective Allies of ours. 

A long succession of them passes before my 
mind's eye and a few of them stand out very con- 
spicuously, but what remains quite clear as the 
outstanding feature of my dealings with them 
was their absolute reliability, their honesty in pre- 
serving secret information which, for some reason 
or another, I had been compelled to (or perhaps 

136 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

had thought wiser to) impart to them, and their 
loyalty in never making use of it until I gave them 
the word *^go.^' Keen? Oh, yes! None were 
keener. They would go anywhere at any time and 
do anything, though they didn't differ in that from 
their British brothers of the craft. They were 
very persistent and persuasive, very hungry for 
'interviews" with the great ones of this (naval) 
earth, and I cannot help thinking that gracefully 
to concede ten minutes to an extremely intelligent 
writer, who after all submits his interview in type 
within twelve to twenty-four hours, is a little com- 
pliment that it would be wise to pay the foreign 
newspaper men more often and more gracefully 
and more ungrudgingly than it has been done in 
the past. 

Sir Rosslyn Wemyss,^ the First Sea Lord of the 
last year of the war, whilst hating personal pub- 
licity no less than his predecessors, was very kind 
and obliging about this and never refused me, 
trusting that I had sufficient discrimination to 
bring along only the men of importance. 

No doubt the representatives of the great Amer- 
ican journals who were either resident here or 
were specially sent over during the war period are 
mainly among the **top notchers" of their pro- 
fession, precisely as are our leading newspaper 
representatives in foreign capitals. The majority 
of these American men were University men of 
wide interests, and well able to take a broad and 

*Now Admiral of the Fleet Lord Wester Wemyss. 

137 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

sane view of everyday events. Well, that's enough 
** bouquets" for American journalists! 

The first one I call to mind was a charming 
young man I spotted at one of Admiral HalPs lit- 
tle weekly informal talks that he had instituted 
as a rendezvous for the Press. I went up to him 
and asked him if he remembered me. No, he 
guessed not. **Well," I said, *^ seeing that I am 
fifty and you are perhaps thirty, perhaps you will 
remember a Sunday forenoon session and subse- 
quent lunch party in the American Embassy 
* compound' in Pekin in the summer of 1911, 
when the revolution was going on in China I" 

Oh, yes, Mr. Patchin (Chicago Tribune) was 
now able to remember that day ; he had been in ef- 
fect trying to beg, borrow, or pinch a set of films 
for a kodak and I reminded him of that too ! 

Perhaps I saw more of Mr. Ben Allen (Associat- 
ed Press) during the early part of the war than 
of any of his colleagues. Shortly after the United 
States joined in, however, he deserted us here and 
went over, I was told, to join Mr. Hoover. I can 
only say that the Associated Press lost a good 
man, I lost a good friend, and Mr. Hoover won 
all the time. 

Looking back through the records of visitors to 
the Fleet and bases (one of the few records which 
fortunately I have kept), I find such well known 
names as Mr. Tuohy (New York World) to whom 
Mr. Balfour gave an interview, in the shape of a 
letter, ^'My dear Mr. Tuohy, '^ shortly after he 

138 



4 

PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

came to the Admiralty, and it became a sort of 
household word among those of us who tried to 
keep things cheerful. Whenever we were in doubt 
as to how to make anything public, we suggested 
**My dear Mr. Tuohy." I hope this gentleman 
appreciates how useful he was to us, as I expect he 
was and is to his fine paper. 

Mr. Marshall (New York Times) is another who 
figures often in my records. On one occasion when 
he visited the fleet he was got at by some young 
gentlemen who told him that the *^ Fleet Press 
Message'' which I sent out daily at midnight was 
a '^dud" show, and couldn't they have something 
more lively? or some complaint of that sort. I 
imagine things were a bit lively when the conver- 
sation took place. It reached the ears of the rep- 
resentative of the Newspaper Proprietors' Asso- 
ciation, who speedily handed it on to the First 
Lord, whereupon I had to wire to the Captain of 
the Fleet to ask what complaint there was as to the 
''Fleet Press Message"? 

I should say that this message had been started 
during the Dardanelles business and extended to 
the Grand Fleet, and the arrangement was that 
any news contained in the late evening papers 
should be condensed and forwarded. I invariably 
sent results of important races, boxing matches, 
etc., but never any divorce cases or home political 
news unless there was a change of government. 
Well, the reply came back that the messages were 

all right and who the was complaining? I 

139 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

only mention this to show how work is made for 
those who already have their fair share of it! 
Mr. Marshall meant nothing but good, and I be- 
lieve that what his friends had complained about 
was the jumbled up form in which the matter was 
distributed in the Grand Fleet, which was no busi- 
ness of mine. I still believe the conversation 
took place about 1 :30 a.m., and I told Mr. Mar- 
shall so ! 

With the heads of the Associated Press (Mr. 
Collins) and United Press (Mr. Keen) of course 
I was constantly in the closest touch, and when the 
U. S. destroyer flotillas came and took a hand in 
the game at Queenstown, it was decided between 
Admiral Sims and his staff and myself to get the 
Commander-in-Chief at Queenstown, Sir Lewis 
Bayly, who loathed all newspaper men and pub- 
licity in any form, to accept two American Press 
representatives. It would be obviously impossible 
to get any ** bunch" of newspapers to nominate 
two of their own number, so we decided to get their 
two powerful Agencies to detail one man each for 
duty at Queenstown, not to report news but to let 
the folks at home in the U. S. A. see something 
of the intimate life of that squadron. We got two 
men and sent them off armed with every sort and 
kind of permit and sanction and blessing that I 
could think of, including a special recommenda- 
tion to that magnificent officer. Commander Prin- 
gle, U. S. N., who commanded their destroyer 
mother-ship Melville. In the course of a few days 

140 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

the matter began to come in. One writer was 
short, crisp, truthful and to the point, like a glass 
of rye ; the other was voluminous and bright and 
bubbly, not unlike a glass of champagne. 

In less than a fortnight the ** champagne" man 
was back among us again. He was too *^ bright,'' 
I suppose, but all I could find out about him was 
that here he was again. The same thing happened 
to the same gentleman on the Western Front, so 
I assume or ** guess'' he was a bit too ^ Afresh." 
After that we rubbed along with only one repre- 
sentative permanently among the flotillas. Pres- 
ently as U. S. writers of all sorts and kinds came 
along like the words of the hymn, in **an ever 
rolling stream, ' ' we gave up having a man in resi- 
dence at all. 

I noticed that the U. S. Naval officers were not 
at all unlike our own, i.e., very averse from pub- 
licity, though I think they recognised perhaps 
more readily than ours the absolute necessity for 
it on the ^*Home Front" as we got to call it, and 
that people whose destroyer flotillas are two to 
three thousand miles away from home, and whose 
privilege it is to provide the ships, the men, and 
the money, are equally entitled to know something 
of what these ships and men are doing and how 
they are living, when such knowledge can be given 
without jeopardising their safety or the success of 
the operations they have in hand. 

In the summer of 1917 there suddenly appeared 
on my horizon a genial and charming gentleman, 

141 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Charles Grasty (New York Tribune). He had 
dropped in on ns via the American Embassy, 
Paris, where he had been in touch with General 
Pershing, and I gathered he had met Admiral 
Sims in London. The question of onr tonnage 
losses was, of course, agitating us all pretty acute- 
ly, and, whilst we did not want to hide material 
facts from the public, we certainly had no inten- 
tion of making the Germans a present of any in- 
formation by which they could check their subma- 
rine officers' reports, and deduce any facts as to 
what trades or areas to concentrate on and so on. 
In fact our object was to *^keep them guessing." 

Now along comes Mr. Grasty with every blessed 
fact and figure and wants to cable them home, and 
I need hardly say that this happened on a Satur- 
day afternoon, when, even in war, after three 
years of it, some of the ^^ heads'' try to get out for 
a breath of air in the country. But my friend Mr. 
Grasty was like the deaf adder in the Psalms 
which ^ * ref useth to hear the voice of the charmer, 
charm he never so wisely." I tried him on golf, 
and told him I was ** scratch" or **plus 2," I for- 
get which (I have never played golf!), but only 
for a fraction of a second did he depart from his 
point — this being that he wanted to put these fig- 
ures before the American public to insist on the 
necessity for more destroyers over this side. 

I asked him where he got his figures, it being 
obvious to me that he could only have got them 
from Lloyd's (who would not, I felt confident, dis- 

142 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

close them), or from an official source. I suggest- 
ed the necessity in which I might find myself of 
putting D.O.E.A. across him. With his comfort- 
able smile he merely said he didn't think I would, 
and couldn't I guess where they had been got? I 
certainly could, and did guess. **Well, then," he 
said, *^you see it's no use talking of D.O.E.A." 
He was clearly in the confidence of his own Army 
and Navy and Ambassador, and he had undoubted- 
ly got the figures from the American Naval Head- 
quarters, though he never actually owned up to it. 

I coaxed permission out of the First Sea Lord to 
let him get away with the figures. Sir John Jelli- 
coe naturally wanted the American people to know 
what we were up against. But when I went to the 
First Lord's office it was not unnaturally a differ- 
ent story. Were our people to get these figures, 
which were rigidly kept from them, via an Ameri- 
can paper? Were we to sanction such a message 
going over the cables 1 It was true, of course, that 
the Ajnerican Government had the figures, so that 
we would not be telling them anything they did not 
know. The question was argued up and down and 
in every conceivable way. Eventually, after alter- 
ing his figures a little and showing him where he 
was claiming a bit too much (but not where he 
was saying too little), I let him get away with his 
cable and sat and waited for the storm to burst 
on my innocent head. 

I believe Mr. Grasty would get away with the 
Eock of Gibraltar in his suit-case if he wanted it. 

143 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Another clianning man and deliglitful writer 
wlio came over here in the late autnmn of 1917 was 
Mr. Ealph Paine. Wherever he went he won 
friends. His first trip was to Queenstown to see 
the American destroyers. He went for ten days, 
and stayed with onr Commander-in-Chief six 
weeks, and Sir Lewis Bayly in returning him to 
me said, *'If you have any more like him, send 
them along.'' That was a pretty good testimony 
as to his tact and popularity, combined with his 
discretion in the handling of facts. He saw every 
single thing there was to see in the life of that 
gallant flotilla and never had a word censored or 
deleted from anything he wrote. 

He subsequently went to Harwich, where he was' 
equally appreciated, and presently went to the 
Grand Fleet, where unfortunately he was only 
able to spend two or three days with the American 
Battle Squadron under Admiral Hugh Eodman.' 
He began to wish to go home and was actually on 
the point of getting off when I told him that, if 
he went without seeing the Western Front, he 
should never be forgiven, as he would miss one of 
the greatest educational sights of all time. 

The time "^was short, but under the auspices of 
our Army men, who ran these Western Front trips 
so extraordinarily successfully and smoothly dur- 
ing the last three years of the war, I fixed him a 
five days' trip. He came back really grateful to 
me for having forced him to go. I hope that Peace 
wiU not keep him from returning here and renew- 

144 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

ing the many friendships he made whilst in this 
country. 

One American author insisted on travelling 
about with his wife, which was a rather tall order 
in war time ; however, he was so persistent in say- 
ing that the lady *^ collaborated" or ^* co-oper- 
ated" with him (typewriting?) that for peace- 
sake I sent him and his lady to Queenstown to the 
horror of our Commander-in-Chief. On his return, 
and when he had got his manuscript through the 
U. S. Naval censorship and ours also, he demanded 
to go to the U. S. Naval Bases in France, of course 
accompanied by his partner. The U. S. Naval 
Headquarters staff was as much upset as we were. 
We argued, however that inasmuch as they 
would very likely get back to the States from 
France, their extraordinary demand should be 
complied with. And we were rewarded for our ac- 
tion by hearing that they had returned to the 
States. I merely mention this case to show what 
extraordinarily inconsiderate demands can be 
made in war time and as showing the contrast be- 
tween men of this and the Ralph Paine type. 

Amongst others who flit across the picture was 
a bright lad called Pat 'Flaherty. I believe the 
Grand Fleet will still remember his wild 
'^whoops" at the end of a concert or ** jamboree" 
he and other American journalists attended, when 
on a visit to Scapa. Also I do not imagine Mr. 
'Flaherty will forget a trip in an airplane from 
Felixstowe, on which occasion he and his pilot got 

145 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

**fogged," and just missed the edge of a cliff by 
about six feet when flying at eighty miles an hour. 

Messrs. Draper (New York Tribime), Grigg 
(New York World), Morris (Associated Press), 
F. M. America (Associated Press), Clair Price 
(Curtis Brown News) are among those of the most 
important, and therefore successful, of the army 
of American pressmen. It was always a pleasure 
to try to meet their wishes, as they were so uni- 
formly grateful for anything I could do for them. 
Many others, a host of them, there were, but I 
cannot pass them all in review at this distance of 
time. 

One in particular I do remember who stalked 
into my room one day with about nine inches of 
cigar stuck in the side of his face, and on my re- 
marking to him, ^*I don't remember inviting you 

to smoke here, Mr. ,'' he looked at me as if he 

felt sea-sick and threw about 50 cents' worth of 
Corona Corona into the fireplace, when we pro- 
ceeded amicably to business. I suspect that the 
charwoman who cleared up the fireplace had a su- 
preme success with her man that evening on the 
strength of that cigar. 

It will be remembered that comparatively early 
in the war — I think in 1915, or it may have been 
in 1916 — ^the Hearst Press had transgressed cer- 
tain accepted rules and had, in consequence, been 
struck off the list of those to whom cable privileges 
were allowed. This was, I imagine, a serious han- 
dicap to them when the States came into the war. 

146 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

Finally, owing, I suppose, to pledges or assurances 
given on the other side, we got instructions that 
the Hearst Press was to be readmitted into the 
comity of A:merican pressmen on terms of absolute 
equality. 

As soon as that reached us, we started to give 
effect to it. One of the ** International News" 
men, as the Hearst Press was re-christened, came 
along to me and wanted an interview with the 
First Sea Lord. Acting on our new principles, I 
saw Sir Eosslyn and put the case to him. He put 
his usual question — ^was it for the good of the 
show that he should grant the interview? — and on 
my telling him that, in the altered circumstances, 
it could do nothing but good, he agreed to be inter- 
viewed, and in ten minutes he was, so to speak, 
*'in the chair." The First Sea Lord opened by 
saying that he understood that there had been dif- 
ficulties in the past, but that now these were re- 
moved, we should, as was the British custom, 
shake hands and be friends. There would be no 
reservations or hanging back on our part, whilst 
his Agency for their part played the game. 

Mr. thanked the First Sea Lord and 

started by saying that he was determined to put 
the war before the American people in all its bru- 
tality and horrors, and emphasised his intention 
of letting the American newspaper-reading public 
know that this was ^^No bloody Pink Tea." I 
watched Sir Rosslyn's face carefully, but there 
wasn't the twitter of an eyelid, and so the inter- 

147 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

view which occupied but ten minutes ran its course 
and the Hearst Press representative was bowed 
out with satisfaction, I think, on both sides. 

In a day or two I was rung up on the 'phone, 
and the head of the Agency told me that he was 
not getting freedom with his cabling. I could not 
understand this, as all my colleagues in the War 
Office, who controlled the cables, and also the Di- 
rectors of the Press Bureau, had the same (Gov- 
ernment) orders that I had. I made enquiries and 
found that he was not being hampered in any way 
here. Complaints and queries kept on coming in 
for some four to six weeks, I should say, and final- 
ly I cabled over to my opposite number in the 
Navy Department at Washington and then found 
that whatever obstruction there was, existed over 
there, and that is all I will say as to that. We 
carried out our part of the bargain and no doubt 
there was good reason for the action taken over 
there. 

Of French journalists, the outstanding names 
are those of M. Coudurier de Chassaigne {Figaro) 
and M. de Marsillac {Le Journal). Both these 
gentlemen were resident here. The former only 
went on one or two trips under our auspices when 
some slight censoring of the manuscript disin- 
clined him for further glimpses of our hospitality 
or activities. Also, no doubt, he was very fully 
occupied in London as President of the Foreign 
Journalists' Society, on whose behalf he busied 
himself unceasingly. M. de Marsillac, on the other 

148 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

hand, was very active, and having considerable en- 
terprise and charm of manner I gave him very 
many facilities of which he made good nse, as I 
considered that he could benefit our cause in 
France. 

The sequel came at a Press Conference in 1917, 
when I was directly tackled as to why the Allied 
gentleman was being given more facilities than 
were being accorded to our own men ? My answer 
was that we badly needed propaganda in the coun- 
try districts of France, where it was reported that 
the people were asking, '^What is the British 
Navy doing r' whereas here our folks knew what 
we were doing to a far greater extent. Still, I 
was rather severely heckled and in consequence I 
had with regret to shut down on some of his activi- 
ties. He never caused me a moment's anxiety, 
though it is true that he was a little over anxious 
in his enquiries in the Dover District on one occa- 
sion. I assume that he *' smelt" the preparations 
for the Zeebriigge business and wanted to be on 
the spot when the time came. At all events, Ad- 
miral Bacon asked me to bring him back to Lon- 
don, which I did without hurting his feelings, I 
believe. 

In a category apart from all the other writers it 
has been my pleasure to help, I place Lewis Free- 
man, and for the reason that he served as an Hon- 
orary Lieutenant, E.N.V.R., for the last twelve 
months of the war in the Grand Fleet. This came 
about as follows : Freeman was one of many who 

149 . 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

came to me wanting tMs and that trip '* squared*' 
for him. He was not a journalist but a magazine 
and book writer. The first record I have of him 
was his asking on May 31, 1916 (auspicious date) 
for an interview with Captain Gwatkin Williams, 
whose story of H.M.S. Tara and his captivity for 
some months in North Africa and his rescue by 
the Duke of Westminster, then with the armoured 
cars, will be remembered. I was struck by the 
delicacy and restraint shown in his handling of 
that story and his scrupulous care not to interfere 
with Captain Williams' own publication of it. 

I next arranged for him on July 29, 1916, a 
visit to Harwich and got him permission to go on 
board one of our submarines at the moment when 
she came alongside the jetty on return from a 
week's patrol. Fortunately, there was a thick fog 
well out to sea off Harwich, so Mr. Freeman had 
to kick his heels about in the depressing little town 
of Harwich for a day and half. There he got into 
conversation with the people and got on to the 
subject of Captain Fryatt and his murder by the 
Germans. 

Eventually, after some twenty-four to thirty 
hours ' delay, the submarine arrived alongside and 
Mr. Freeman prepared and submitted his article 
on what he saw and heard there; but it was not 
that article which decided his British Naval ca- 
reer for him, but another which he wrote for 
Land omd Water, entitled *'To British Merchant 
Captains," which marked him out in my mind as 

150 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

apart from all other overseas war writers I had 
met up to then. I was immensely struck by his 
sympathy with and knowledge of the British Mer- 
chant Navy the wide world over. 

"When I wanted an American writer to go to the 
Grand Fleet to live there, and to record for the 
benefit of the American people the life and do- 
ings of that Fleet, I at once decided on Freeman, if 
he would take the job. I looked about for him for 
some weeks and heard that he was on the Italian 
Front and then on the Serbian Front and knock- 
ing about generally ' * out there. ' ' 

However, one evening early in December, 1917, 
I ran into him just outside our Old Admiralty en- 
trance in Whitehall and told him I had been want- 
ing him. I took him into the office and set my plan 
before him. He said he wanted twenty-four hours 
in which to think it over, but long before the time 
was up he had accepted, and all I then had to do 
was to get approval from my Chiefs and make 
sure that the U. S. Embassy had no sort of objec- 
tion. 

We made him a Lieutenant, R.N.V.E. Messrs. 
Gieve fitted him out in uniform and on December 
22 he joined the Grand Fleet in H.M.S. Erin, 
During his stay in that Fleet, i. e., till after the 
return of the Allied cruise for the inspection of 
the German bases, air stations, etc. (which he 
well described in the Cornhill Magazine), he lived 
on board all sorts of craft from battleships to de- 
stroyers, met everybody there was to meet and 

151 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

know, and, thongh a very quiet reserved man, was 
welcomed everywhere. He made none but friends 
in every ship he served in, and he very amply ful- 
filled every expectation I had formed of him. His 
judgment was good and his taste in handling the 
mass of matter with which his well-stored head 
was full was above criticism. 

I see that in a publication of his called **Many 
Fronts, ' ' which he sent me at this New Year, 1919, 
he inscribes it, **To the only Censor whose head I 
never wanted to punch. ' ' Well, I am glad of this, 
as — ^well, the advice I would give to anybody who 
is about to shake hands with Freeman is to get 
hold first, for if he catches your hand his paw will 
squash it into pulp, and give you cause to remem- 
ber it all your life ! 

I will finish up by quoting the remark of an 
American correspondent to me when the States 
had been in the war about six to nine months, 
* ' Our chaps let us see a hell of a lot and pass noth- 
ing, whereas you fellers don 't let us see anything 
but pass a lot more than our men." It was cer- 
tainly true that the U. S. Naval censorship was 
vastly more strict than ours, and I think naturally 
so, for they were new-comers and inexperienced 
at the game. 

I have one bright recollection in this connection. 
I sent my tame photographer over to Queenstown 
to get a series of interesting and intimate pictures 
of the U. S. destroyer flotilla. I sent the result, 
some ninety-six pictures, among which were many 

152 



PRESS MEN OF ALLIED COUNTRIES 

groups of officers and men, across to my opposite 
number at Washington for issue to the Press, and 
we arranged by cable for simultaneous publication 
there and here, and he was to cable if, in his judg- 
ment, any need be stopped. To my amazement he 
stopped all the groups, but went out of his way to 
pass one — a *^ close up,'* showing in detail the fit- 
tings for releasing depth charges ! — one that I, of 
course, had marked * * stopped. ' ' Fortunately there 
was time to correct this ruling and all was well. 

Bless their hearts ! I mention this to show how 
easy it is to get off the rails in matters of censor- 
ship. 



153 



CHAPTER XI 

VISITOES TO THE GRAND FI>EET 

Visit by the Archbishop of York — The "mystery" port — ^Mrs. 
Humphry Ward's "England's effort'' — Journalists on 
tour — Some Russian sightseers — ^The American Ambassa- 
dor and his son — Organizing a visit — An evening "breeze" 
in an hotel — "Chaperon" officers and their tact — The 
King's visit — Photographers official and unofficial — A 
misunderstanding. 

No doubt a considerable number of people 
thought that the Grand Fleet was kept hidden 
away from them, and that nobody was allowed to 
see it or visit it out of sheer malice or cussedness 
on the part of the Admiralty, or some other amor- 
phous body of idiots, who didn't appreciate what 
the public felt about its ships and sailors. 

Fortunately, I have kept a record of all visitors 
sent up to the Fleet, commencing from July, 1915, 
when the Archbishop of York paid a visit to Sir 
John Jellicoe and the Grand Fleet. He was an 
old friend of the Navy, and it was well known what 
he had gone up for, as we issued photographs of 
him holding a service for thousands of men in 
one of the newly completed huge dry docks at 
Rosyth. By the way, in those days, and for long 
after, we had to refer to Rosyth only as * * a North- 

154 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

em port," or a few bolder ones would refer to it 
as '*a Scottish port," whilst those who were reck- 
less and wished to jeopardise the safety of the 
country and its fleet boldly and brazenly dragged 
in a reference to **the Scottish capital." Drat 
them ! I can afford to laugh now, and I do ; but 
every such reference brought me a crop of wires 
of protest and in my heart I cursed the over-bold 
ones. 

It is easy enough after reading Sir John Jelli- 
coe's book to realise the anxiety and necessity for 
absolute secrecy, and it is also quite simple to ap- 
preciate the fact that, living away in the remote 
North as did the officers of the Fleet, they never 
could take a broad view of what was risky and 
what was in effect absolutely innocuous in the pub- 
licity line, as we in London were able to do, owing 
to our having a bird's-eye view of the whole war in 
relation to both Allied and neutral countries. 

The next party that went up was a group 
of French journalists, in September, 1915, and 
with the exception of a few isolated visitors there 
were no more raids on the Navy until January 7, 
1916, when we sent a huge party of British, Colo- 
nial, American, French, Italian, Scandinavian, 
and Dutch journalists to Harwich. No doubt Tyr- 
whitt's squadron was the attraction, though I have 
no record. I only hope my friends didn't take 
the opportunity to flit to sea. Some of my friends 
did play me that trick once or twice, so it became 

155 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

clear that I must handle them gently to keep the 
right side of them. 

This trip showed us that it was useless to mix 
up British and Colonial visitors, even with our 
Allies like the French and Italians, and it was, of 
course, foolish to introduce them into the same 
party as American and Dutch and Scandinavians, 
all of whom were then neutrals. What a guiding 
or piloting officer would wish to say to one lot he 
could not, of course, say to another. We tried to 
avoid that in the subsequent trips arranged, 
though not always with complete success. 

In February, 1916, Mrs. Humphry Ward went 
up to Eosyth. She was then writing her letters to 
Mr. Eoosevelt, which were subsequently (1917) 
published under the title *^ England ^s Effort,'' the 
receipt of a copy of which I gratefully acknowl- 
edged. I fixed the trip for Mrs. Humphry Ward, 
and in making out her permit I was foolish enough 
to style her ^* journalist." I was not exactly sur- 
prised to hear that she was, so to speak, ** looking 
for me," and I took care that she didn't fijid me. 
However, the trip came off all right except that 
the ship to which she had been invited was not in 
the Firth of Forth when she reached Hawes Pier. 
I mention that she had really been invited, as it 
was a bit of an innovation for a woman, however 
gifted, to go on board any of the ships in war-time. 
However, she was entertained farther north, as 
you may see in her fine book, in which she delight- 
fully describes her experiences. 

156 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

A week later a party of about twenty American 
journalists went to see the battle cruisers. Next 
came Major the Eeverend Gordon, of the Cana- 
dian Army, who writes under the name of **Ealph 
Connor,'' a charming gentleman who stayed a 
fortnight in the Fleet and whom they would have 
kept if they could. I can 't say more. 

In March a party of seven Eussian literary 
gentlemen were north, amongst whom the follow- 
ing names appear : Danchenko, Habokoff, Egoroff, 
Tolstoy, Dukouretsky, Bashmakoff, Chukowsky. 
I wonder how many of them have been **Bol- 
shevised'' off the face of the earth. Then in 
April we sent a party of American and Scan- 
dinavian journalists to Leith to see the working of 
the ships sent in by the blockade. In the same 
month also a large party of French Senators and 
Deputies, accompanied by members of our Lords 
and Commons, visited the Fleet at Eosyth, and all 
shipbuilding and armament works on the Tyne, 
Clyde, and at Sheffield. Ainong our party ap- 
peared the names of Messrs. Clemenceau, Doumer, 
d'Estournelles de Constant, Pichon, Chaumet, 
Leygues, and eighteen others. 

In May we despatched a party of Eussian vis- 
itors consisting of five members of the Council 
of the Empire and nine members of the Duma. 
Mr. Protopopoff stands out among the latter, or 
he did stand out, as he has since been beheaded, 
together with some others of his fellow-visitors. 

Between May 22 and 27 a party of twenty-two 
157 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

British journalists visited the Grand Fleet at 
Scapa, and subsequently went the round of the 
Clyde shipbuilding establishments. It was for- 
tunate that these gentlemen had seen the Grand 
Fleet and its Commander-in-Chief so shortly be- 
fore the Jutland battle, as they were able to form 
a sound opinion of the spirit which actuated and 
was vibrant in both officers and men, and the ef- 
ficiency of the ships themselves. 

Early in July some Italian and French journal- 
ists were sent up, so that they might see for them- 
selves, repaired and in their place in the line again, 
the ships which the Germans boastfully and per- 
sistently claimed as being sunk. On July 20 and 
21 a mixed party of journalists of all countries, 
including representatives of many technical pa- 
pers, visited Rosyth and the Clyde, and at the 
close of the month our Overseas Dominions Par- 
liamentary representatives also paid the Fleet a 
visit. 

During the two years that the war had been in 
progress I had been fortunate in becoming ac- 
quainted with the U. S. Ambassador and his 
charming wife. They were kind enough to extend 
to me a friendship which I deeply appreciated, and 
visits to their house in Grosvenor Square were the 
nearest approach to visits to my own home that I 
could imagine. In the autumn of 1916 the Am- 
bassador's son, Mr. Arthur Page, came over on a 
visit and in due course we met. He expressed a 
desire to tisit the Fleet, and I started out to ar- 

158 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

range a trip for Mm. I was well aware of the 
difficult task the Ambassador had in '* keeping the 
American end up" whilst at the same time main- 
taining correct and smooth diplomatic relations, 
and I had been keen that he (Mr. Page) should 
spare us the time for a holiday visit to the Grand 
Fleet. As he was too busy to get away, however, 
I was determined that we should do what we could 
for his son and so show the Ambassador vicari- 
ously what we thought of him and how greatly we 
appreciated his broad-minded and friendly atti- 
tude. 

I put the matter before my chiefs and Sir John 
Jellicoe and got nothing but help from all of them. 
I sent my Assistant (Paymaster Commander E. 
H. Shearme) and the Director of Naval Intelli- 
gence sent his personal assistant (Lieut. C. P. 
Serocold, E.N.V.R.) up with Mr. Arthur Page, 
and he was given as good a trip as we could ar- 
range and a really interesting one. He stayed two 
nights with Sir. John Jellicoe, and I believe I am 
right in saying that no other visitor had even done 
so before. At all events the little party came back 
well satisfied with their trip, and I don't suppose 
it did Great Britain any harm. 

I could go on right through each month of the 
year with lists of Overseas Prime Ministers, 
Agents-General, and, at very rare intervals, here 
and there a British Cabinet Minister, but it would 
be wearisome to do so. I only want to make it clear 
that the Grand Fleet, and especially those ships 

159 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

which happened to be at Rosyth, usually the bat- 
tle-cruisers, were fairly — or, as they would say, 
unfairly — ^frequently visited. It must be realised 
that every visit necessitated considerable work in 
the fleet. For instance, arrangements had to be 
made for the following : 

1. An officer to meet the visitors at the hotel in 
Edinburgh. 

2. Motors to transport them to Hawes Pier, 
Eosyth. 

3. Boats to bring them off. 

4. Distribution of the party amongst various 
ships. 

5. A detailed programme to be worked out, 
moving the party from ship to ship. 

6. A detailed programme on board each ship. 

7. Officers to be told off to pilot the guests round 
the ships. 

8. Luncheon parties to be arranged and suit- 
able hosts provided, according to the rank and 
importance of the guests. 

9. Similar arrangements for their transport on 
the return journey. 

That was only the fleet end of the business. At 
our end all railway and hotel arrangements had 
to be carefully worked out and elaborated, towns 
and shipyards fitted in, and every sort and kind of 
official, including the local police, advised, since 
aliens were not allowed to sleep in prohibited 

160 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

are^s, and all visitors seemed to hanker after these 
forbidden spots. Then arrangements had to be 
made for rapid censorship of written matter, and 
frequently in many different languages. Oh, no! 
It was no picnic for the hosts ; but, like visiting the 
dentist, it had to be faced. It is not surprising 
that my friends in the fleet became fewer and 
beautifully less with each fresh incursion of what 
they sweetly described as * ' another of Brown- 
rigg's circus parties!" 

I may conclude the record for the year 1916 by 
adding that, apart from single visitors and par- 
ties consisting of only one or two, British, Cana- 
dian and Australian journalists visited the Fleet 
on September 21. A large party of Overseas 
journalists followed on October 14, British jour- 
nalists on October 27, a party of ten Brazilian 
Naval officers in November, and on December 29 
sixteen Canadian M.P. 's completed the business — 
not a bad record for a fleet which was trying to 
keep itself tuned up to the moment. 

All or most of the foregoing had been arranged 
for between the Foreign Office Department of In- 
formation and my office, and official ** chaperons ' ' 
were provided, these being either special officers 
attached to the Foreign Office for the purpose, or 
certain officers on the staff of the Director of Na- 
val Intelligence with whom during the whole war, 
and on every possible subject, I worked in very 
close contact. 

Comparatively full as had been the programme 
161 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

of visitors to the Fleet during 1916, it soon became 
evident that there was to be a considerable in- 
crease in this branch of our business. 

In the spring of 1917 Commander C. C. Walcott, 
R.N., was appointed liaison officer between the 
Foreign Office, Department of Information, and 
the Admiralty. He worked under the joint con- 
trol of the Director of Naval Intelligence and my- 
self, as it was decided that the visits to the Fleet 
could not be divorced from my office if I was to re- 
tain control over what was written and published. 

For the purpose of regulating my position I 
was made a ** Competent Naval Authority'' un- 
der the Defence of the Realm Act, and as such per- 
mits to enter prohibited areas issued by me were 
valid anywhere, and these permits remained in 
force till the Armistice. I issued many hundreds 
of them, and only in very exceptional cases did 
any holder of them ever meet with any difficulty, 
though, of course, here and there an artist or a 
journalist, if he had been accompanied or guided 
by St. Peter himself, would not get by some over- 
zealous — I refrain from saying stupid — ^policeman 
or sentry who was unacquainted with the rules in 
force, other than those of his own immediate su- 
periors. 

Commander Walcott had to surround himself 
with officers to act as pilots or chaperons, but, like 
Oliver Twist, he always wanted more. Eventually 
we get together a very good lot of fellows, officers 
of the R.N.V.R., who were either invalided or 

162 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

were too old to serve at sea, or had served on tlie 
Western Front for two and a half years or so. 
This was the case with Lieutenant Gordon Robin- 
son, of the Royal Marines, who had been in France 
with the heavy howitzers since they first went out. 
I got him home because we wanted a man to coun- 
ter nasty articles in the Foreign Press on shipping 
matters, and as he was the owner and editor of 
our leading shipping paper, F airplay, I thought he 
would be a round peg in a round hole, which he 
proved to be. 

"When not employed in writing he was switched 
on to the piloting business, and very well he did it. 
He had some pleasant trips, and he made many 
friends, among whom, I am afraid, he cannot num- 
ber one lady, a member of an American Mission 
of War-workers, who visited the Fleet, the Clyde, 
and the vast explosive factory at Gretna Green. 
It was a very serious party, as may be judged 
from the following. It consisted of thirteen Amer- 
ican men and six American women. We sent two 
journalists from London, in addition to giving a 
free run to the Glasgow Press, two photographers. 
Sir Campbell Stuart, Mr. (now Sir) Harry Brit- 
tain, and two other officers from the Ministry of 
Information ; and to ensure success, so far as we 
could possibly do so, we sent Commander Walcott, 
two other commanders, Lieutenant-Commander 
Beer (the Admiralty Press officer). Lieutenant 
Gordon Robinson, and my assistant, Paymaster- 

163 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Commander Shearme — a formidable but very ca- 
pable and cheery array of talent! 

It was of no avail. The ladies were disappoint- 
ed at not being permitted to address any of the 
ships' companies at Rosyth, though they had their 
say at some of the Clyde shipyards. The first real 
breeze took place in the hotel in Glasgow, where 
some of the ladies thought they were not being 
properly treated since the rooms which were al- 
lotted to them lacked some fitments which are to 
be found attached to most bedrooms in any self- 
respecting hotel in the States. It was in vain that 
it was explained that plumbers were at a premium 
and architectural alterations could not then be 
made so as to make the hotel conform to their 
wishes and enable them to feel ** homelike." Such 
as we were, we had to remain. 

That breeze never quite assumed the dimensions 
of a gale such as occurred the next night at Car- 
lisle, where they were to stop, preparatory to 
visiting the works at Gretna. Whether it was the 
fatigue of the day, or the proximity of Gretna, 
with its romantic history, I do not know, but at 
about eleven p.m., when the party were being 
shepherded to their respective rooms, shrieks w^re 
heard, and one lady came down again in hysterics, 
because it seems a lady junior to her in position 
had been given a bigger room than hers ! Here 
was a nice position. Gordon Robinson looked 
about for his colleagues. They had quietly disap- 
peared, and they hadn't even the excuse of going 

164 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

to get drinks, as the war-time restrictions put that 
out of the question ! He had lingering hopes that 
one of the male guests, named Love joy, might hap- 
pen along to help him out. Not a soul came to 
the rescue, and I have always enjoyed picturing 
to myself this fortunate officer calming the hys- 
terical lady and arguing her into sweet reasonable- 
ness — an attractive thought for me, but Eobinson 
declines to discuss it. On the return of the party 
he asked for and obtained three days' leave! 

Thus all the trips were not joy rides. On the 
other hand, he was so much of a success with a 
French Parliamentary party, headed by Mr. Paul 
Bignon, for whom we had arranged a really * ' star 
turn'' ten days' tour, that they insisted on carry- 
ing him off backio Paris with them to let him see 
what they could do in the '* showman" depart- 
ment. 

All through 1918, with the development of the 
Ministry of Information, visits became more and 
more frequent and the numbers grew. Many a 
time I had to set my face against parties being 
sent up whose personnel really did not justify the 
expense and trouble or the disturbance of the 
Fleet. In such cases I used Harwich or the Home 
Ports, and these ''standby" places enabled me 
just to keep within the limits barely tolerated by 
the Fleet. It will easily be seen that to pilot par- 
ties round the Fleet, under these circumstances, 
men with a knowledge of the world and of the 

165 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Navy, tact, and a considerable capacity for ab- 
sorption of fluids (on occasion), were essential. 

Well, in Commander Walcott, Lieutenant Gor- 
don Robinson, and Lieut.-Commander Bertie Sul- 
livan we bad sucb men. An unfortunate word, a 
misunderstanding as to tbe settling of hotel ac- 
counts, a mistake in tbe time of meeting trains 
or motors, each of these in a moment was able to 
nullify the good effect of any trip, however care- 
fully planned and no matter how elaborate it 
might be. The country and the Ministry of Infor- 
mation have much for which to thank our '-chape- 
ron" or *' pilot" officers in keeping things smooth 
and sweet and in making their visitors ' trip to the 
Fleet the success they undoubtedly were. 

I wonder if any of that Ministry ever gave a 
grateful thought to the officers of the Fleet who 
organised their part of the business, looked after 
their guests, answered innumerable questions, and 
finally entertained them at various meals? I do 
not doubt that Lord Beaverbrook appreciated it, 
but I question whether the Government which he 
represented did. 

Last, but important, were the visits of his Maj- 
esty the King to the Fleet, both at Scapa and at 
Rosyth. On these occasions, by his Majesty's 
kindness translated into a wish, a large party of 
journalists, photographers, and our official cine- 
matographer, accompanied him on the whole tour, 
with the result that the public saw a bit of what 
he was doing on behalf of the Navy. All we had 

166 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

to do was to keep the story back until he had re- 
turned to London, so that the whereabouts of the 
Fleet could not be deduced at the moment of read- 
ing. 

We had one or two breezes with the chairman 
of the Newspaper Proprietors' Association as to 
this, he taking the attitude that the story would 
be *^dead" by the time it was published, and I 
taking the view that, provided the public did not 
know when the King started and when he came 
back, the actual calendar date of the story was im- 
material, and so it proved. Every paper pub- 
lished its representative's story m extenso, and 
I think the public enjoyed these accounts of the 
King's visits. We did a good business with the 
photographs and films, too. 

The attitude of the fleet towards photographers, 
both ** still" and ^* moving,'' was curious. It in- 
variably tried to prevent them being sent up, say- 
ing that there were plenty of men in the fleet capa- 
ble of doing all that was required. Every artifice 
and stratagem down to downright lying and mis- 
use of high officials' names had to be put in use to 
succeed in planting my professional photogra- 
phers and cinematographers on the Fleet on these 
occasions. I hope by now I have been forgiven 
by my own confreres of the fleet! 

I tried hard to explain to them that, however 
good an amateur may be at ordinary photography, 
he could not, in the ordinary nature of things, ever 
expect or hope to be able to compete with the 

167 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

professional for journalistio work, which has to 
be done in a hurry and which cannot be repeated. 
The amateur is too shy and retiring. The profes- 
sional has to be a *^thruster" to be at the right 
spot at the right time. He has his chance, and if 
he does not take it, or if he does not get a suitably 
good result, it is gone for ever. The amateur 
would merely curse himself and say, ^^ Better luck 
next time," but the professional would be out of 
a job. Failures don't make bread and butter for 
professional journalistic photographers, and still 
less for moving-picture men. 

I remember one case to which I did not attach a 
great deal of importance, and so did not plant my 
cinematographer with the Fleet and agreed to the 
local man taking the film. When the pictures came 
down and I saw them run off I remarked what a 
pity there was such a bad light, as the result 
was indistinguishable— when all of a sudden I saw 
a blazing figure on the film, and a great, deep 
shadow, thus showing that there was, in effect, a 
fine strong light, but — something had gone wrong. 
I think it is fair to say that of all the films sent 
down to me from the Fleet taken by its own men 
not more than 20 per cent, were fit for exhibition, 
and that is being liberal! 

On the occasion of the King's visit to the Fleet 
in the summer of 1918 the Press was taken charge 
of by two ^* pilot" officers told off from the Fleet 
itself, in addition to our own Admiralty Press 
Officer (Lieut.-Commander Beer). They were 

168 



VISITORS TO THE GRAND FLEET 

very well taken care of, and had a really fine show, 
which included seeing an aeroplane fly off the tur- 
ret of one of the battleships, and this they duly 
wrote all about. Seeing this stuff come through, 
I naturally imagined that the people in the Fleet 
had given them a free run as to what they could 
say. There was, however, a tremendous row about 
this particular fact being published, and I was put 
**on the carpet." 

I said then, and I said subsequently in the Fleet, 
that I naturally assumed that if those who were 
responsible for the arrangements in the Fleet 
went out of their way to show the Press something 
extremely secret, and which they specially did not 
wish to be mentioned, they should have had the 
gumption to warn the Press that, though they were 
given this special privilege of seeing the wonder- 
ful new development in flying, on no account 
should it be written about; and they could have 
relied on the pressmen all right enough. Even 
if they had told Lieutenant-Commander Beer, or 
sent me a wire, the incident would have been safe- 
ly tucked away until such time as the fleet chose to 
say that it could be released. Not a word was 
said ! It seemed to be thought up in the Fleet that 
it would be all right — that the Press and the cen- 
sorship would know by instinct what was in its 
mind! 

When it was made public all that remained to 
do was to indulge in the gentle pastime of ^ ^ stra- 
fing the Censor.'' Fortunately I have a to^gh 

169 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

hide and some facility of expression, so my friends 
in the Fleet got as good as they gave, whilst really 
I was extremely distressed that a secret should 
have been made public by an oversight on their 
part. 



170 



CHAPTER Xn 

ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

Proposal of the Imperial War Museum Committee for a pic- 
torial record — Selection of the artists — Mr. Muirhead 
Boners ordeal — "Blinker Hall" — Painting Sir David 
Beatty's portrait — Mr. Francis Dodd's sea experience — 
Sir John Lavery and the surrender of the German Fleet 
— Present at the Conference as a "Post Captain" — The 
vicissitudes of Mr. Philip Connard — A Zeppelin raid and 
an incident in the Channel — Mr. Charles Pears^ fine naval 
work — A difference of opinion in the Battle Cruiser Fleet 
— Lieutenant Arnold Foster's experience as an artist in 
the air. 

Early in 1917 Commander Walcott, wlio liad 
been appointed Admiralty representative on the 
Committee of the Imperial War Museum, told me 
that the committee wanted to have the naval side 
of the war recorded by artists. So I said that I 
would get a report from serious and responsible 
people in the art world ready for him in a little 
time. I met Mr. Clifford Smith, and talked the 
matter over with him, and asked him if he could 
obtain for me such a report as I had promised. I 
made it clear to him that my object was to obtain 
a report from men in the art world, whose judg- 
ment of contemporary art was recognised as the 

171 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

best procurable, and that the work of the selected 
artists should be judged, so far as such a thing is 
possible, with a view to its standing the test of 
time. I wanted the Eoyal Navy in the years to 
come to have the very best pictorial representation 
of the Great War, and I wanted it to be impossible 
for anybody now or hereafter to say of the work 
of this or that artist that he was chosen because 
he was a friend of this man or that. Letters then 
passed, and I have to thank Mr. Clifford Smith, of 
the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Mr. Charles 
J. Holmes, Director of the National Gallery, for 
their valuable and helpful report. It is only right 
and fair to the public and to the artists and to the 
Navy that these facts should be known. 

The selection of artists was made after further 
consultation by these two gentlemen with Mr. 
Charles Aitken, Director of the Tate Gallery; Mr. 
D. S. MacColl, Keeper and Secretary of the Wal- 
lace Collection ; Sir Claude Phillips, and Mr. Mar- 
tin Wood ; and the following gentlemen were sug- 
gested : Sir John Lavery, A.E.A. ; Mr. Glyn Phil- 
pot, A.E.A.; Captain Philip Connard, who was 
engaged upon camouflage work for the Army; Mr. 
Ambrose McEvoy, and Mr. Charles Pears. 

Great care was taken in considering the various 
fields in which each artist was to be invited to 
work, and it was recognised that in the sea-pieces 
by Van de Velde, who was chosen by Charles IL 
(and provided with a small vessel) to depict the 

172 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

English naval engagement with the Dutch, a high 
standard had been set. 

Later it was tentatively arranged that Sir John 
Lavery should deal with Naval bases by land- 
scape and incident; that Messrs. Glyn Philpot and 
Ambrose McEvoy should paint the portraits of 
Sir John Jellicoe, Sir David Beatty, Sir Charles 
Madden, Sir F. Sturdee, Sir John de Robeck, and 
Sir R. Tyrwhitt, and that Mr. McEvoy should 
paint the portraits of all the officers and men of 
the Royal Navy who had gained the Victoria 
Cross, including Captain Nasmyth, Captain Un- 
win. Commander Boyle, Commander Campbell, 
Commander Robinson, Lieutenant-Commander 
Holbrook, the late Commander Loftus Jones, the 
late Lieutenant Warneford, and the boy Jack 
Cornwell. It was agreed that Mr. Charles Pears 
and Mr. Nelson Dawson should paint certain sea- 
scape subjects, fleets and ships, and obtain mate- 
rial for painting certain actions of the past and 
future, and that Captain Philip Connard should 
paint pictures of life on board various classes of 
ships. 

In addition. Lieutenant G. S. Alfree, R.N.V.R., 
was invited to furnish sketches! and paintings 
dealing with the patrol work of motor launches, 
patrol boats, drifters, and mine-sweepers. 

Through the earlier activities of Mr. Master- 
man's branch of the Department of Information, 
I had already been brought in contact with Messrs. 
Muirhead Bone and Dodd. Mr. Bone was engaged 

173 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

in doing his well-known drawings out in France, 
wMcti were published under the title of ^*The 
Western Front." Mr. Masterman suggested that 
Mr. Bone should be given facilities for depicting 
some Grand Fleet and shipyard scenes, the ar- 
rangement being that his originals were to be the 
property of the Print Section of the British Mu- 
seum, and we struck a bargain that, in return for 
the necessary facilities, we should be entitled to 
a ** first state" of any reproductions which might 
be made of his naval and shipyard scenes. 

This was agreed to, and in due course, owing 
to the broad and generous view taken of the bar- 
gain by Mr. Campbell Dodgson, the Keeper of the 
Print Section of the British Museum, we ultimate- 
ly became possessed of ten of Mr. Bone's splen- 
did original drawings of the Grand Fleet at Eo- 
syth, which will presently find a home in one of 
our Naval buildings. The shipyard scenes, being 
in black and white, were reproduced in lithograph 
form, and we have a complete signed set of these 
also, so the Navy has done well out of Mr. Muir- 
head Bone. 

This artist has a passion for work surpassed 
by few people I have met. When he was staying 
at Admiralty House, Rosyth, with the late Ad- 
miral Sir Frederick Hamilton, he would disap- 
pear out of the house immediately after breakfast, 
and not infrequently before that meal, and reap- 
pear when the light failed him. That was during 
the summer. But those who remember the mag- 

174 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

nificent black-and-white drawing of his Majesty's 
ship Lion — ^^ Surveying Cables^' — in dry dock at 
Rosyth can imagine what the artist endured, 
standing for hours in the bottom of a dry dock 
(which really had about six inches of water on its 
floor) in the depth of winter and in almost inces- 
sant snowstorms. His fingers at times were so 
numbed that he could not feel them. The ma- 
terials with which he worked frequently froze, so 
that he had to get near a stove to thaw himself and 
them. 

He returned from each of these trips to the 
Fleet, having made hosts of friends and bringing 
back with him literally scores of drawings. He 
has a heart big enough for ten men, and when he 
wished to give an officer or man, to whom he con- 
sidered he was specially indebted for some little 
act of kindness, a sketch as a memento, he would 
work on Sundays, ^ * in his own time. ' ' For -he was 
so scrupulously honest that he .would not part 
with any work he had brought down, since all that 
was the property of the British Museum. 

Eventually, and as might be expected of such a 
worker, he broke down, and was off work for some 
nine months, fretting away all the time at doing 
nothing, and thus retarding his complete recovery. 
However, we got him back presently, and I think 
his first work was a very large black-and-white 
drawing of the Vindictive on her return from Zee- 
brugge. That drawing — in my judgment one of 
the finest of its sort that he has ever executed — » 

i75 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

was sent over to the United States, and toured the 
country in company with other war pictures. I 
am glad to say that this picture is also the prop- 
erty of the Navy. 

He followed up this job by the tour he made 
with his brother, Captain David Bone, for the 
preparation of the book on the Mercantile Marine, 
of which I have written in a previous chapter. I 
pumped good advice into him, and especially did 
I charge his brother to see to it that he didn't al- 
low him to overwork again, else the whole scheme 
would be wrecked. I am glad to say that he re- 
turned *^all correct" and with an enormous mass 
of sketches, from which the two brothers must 
have had trouble in selecting what was necessary 
for their book. 

Bone was one of the artists who went up to the 
Grand Fleet to see the surrender of the German 
fleet, and he was accommodated on board the Fleet 
flagship Queen Elizabeth. Once more he got lost. 
At breakfast-time inquiries were put about as to 
whether anybody had seen Bone. Nobody could 
find him. He turned up about seven p.m., having 
been in the foretop since seven a.m. without a 
scrap of food. "What an enthusiast, and what an 
artist ! 

I call to mind some pleasant evenings spent in 
company with yet another brother, Mr. *^ Jimmy'' 
Bone of the Manchester Guardian, at the latter 's 
rooms. I will not give the address, because if it 
were known it is possible that he might be raided 

176 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

for his fifteen-year-old whisky. Also he may have 
other poems similar to the following which the 
Manchester Guardian reading public should be 
permitted to see ! Its subject, needless to say, is 
Captain (now Admiral) Sir W. R. Hall, then Di- 
rector of Naval Intelligence. 

My name is Captain Hall, 

Damn your eyes; 
They call me "Blinker Hall," 

Damn their eyes; 
I adore you, one and all, 
My name is Captain Hall, 

Damn your eyes, 

Damn your eyes — 
Have some baccy! 

I know each new U-boat, 

Damn your eyes; 
And every mine afloat, 

Damn its eyes; 
And I almost get a blink on 
Your old friend Tribitsch Lincoln, 

Damn his eyes, 

Damn his eyes — 
Happy days! 

They say I stuffed the Press, 

Damn their eyes; 
'Twas the gospel more or less. 

Damn their eyes; 
S'truth I hardly said a word 
It was Wilson* that you heard, 

Damn his eyes, 

Damn his eyes — 

Have a submarine! 
*H. W. Wilson, of Daily Mml. 

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INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

And Sir Douglas he did come, 

Damn his eyes; 
Sir Douglas he would come, 

Damn his eyes; 
And he looked so very glum 
As he censored out each plum, 

Damn his eyes, 

Damn his eyes — 

Have a blue pencil! 



And now in peace I dwell. 

Damn your eyes; 
Tho' there isn^t much to tell, 

Damn your eyes; 
There's a lot of things to mind 
In the time we've left behind. 

Damn your eyes, 

Damn your eyes — 

For the duration of Peace! 



Mr. Francis Dodd was another artist who was 
engaged to make drawings of all the principal 
generals for the National Portrait Gallery. When 
he had fairly well combed out the Western Front, 
we were invited to give him facilities for making 
potraits of all admirals and other oJBficers in im- 
portant commands. I have before referred to the 
dislike of newspaper publicity inherent in all Na- 
val officers. Well — all I can say is that, consid- 
ering their attitude towards having their por- 
traits done, it is surprising that they didn't wear 
yashmaks! 

However, by persistent coaxing, and, I hope, 
178 



I 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

some tact, and help by Mr. Dodd's personality, 
I succeeded in getting thirty-six portraits done. 
He was liked wherever he went — a quiet, unassum- 
ing little man, but with a fund of humour and a 
good supply of stories. When it came to doing 
Sir David Beatty we bumped into difficulties. 
However, owing to the always-ready help of the 
Captain of the Fleet (Commodore the Honorable 
Hubert Brandt), it was managed all right. He 
suggested that Lady Beatty 's help ought to be 
invoked, and somehow it was engineered that 
Dodd should be at Lady Beatty 's home on some 
occasion when a lawyer was going to read over 
some lengthy document to the Admiral. 

Thanks to Lady Beatty ^s kindness, this price- 
less opportunity was taken advantage of; the Ad- 
miral sat stock still for some twenty-five minutes 
or so while occupied with the lawyer, and Dodd 
worked at the portrait at the same time. The re- 
sult was one of the best of Dodd's naval portraits, 
and it was an unconventional picture of the Ad- 
miral sitting in a cane chair, resting his chin in 
his hand. 

Presently it was no wonder that Dodd felt that 
he was getting stale. He lived in the train, going 
from place to place, getting his victims in half 
an hour here and half an hour there, waiting about 
while his prospective subjects were giving inter- 
views to officers or attending conferences, and, 
when they were finally secured, finding that some 
secretary would appear with a bundle of papers 

179 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

for consideration and signature, when the victim 
would ask in a gruff or a plaintive voice (accord- 
ing to his temper and temperament) if it would 
be all right for him to go on with his work, to 
which, of course, Dodd had to reply that it was 
** quite all right.'' The result was that his model 
was never, or very rarely, in the same attitude 
for more than five minutes or so. No wonder the 
little man finally got **fed up." 

Then a happy thought struck us. Why not send 
him down to the submarines and trawlers to live 
on board them and do 'interiors," ^cJ. Dodd 
very diffidently (and probably with his tongue in 
his cheek) said that he knew nothing about ships. 
All the sympathy he got from me was that he 
couldn't know whether he could do the work till 
he had tried. So off he went fairly cheerful. His 
first job was, if I remember right, a ten-days' trip 
in a mine-sweeping trawler — enough to turn an 
ordinary man inside out unless he is brought up to 
it. He brought back a splendid series of drawings 
of every sort and kind — some fine scenes taken 
down in the forecastle head, on the mess decks, 
as well as on the bridge, and pictures of every 
form of upper deck life. 

He then did the same in submarines, and pro- 
duced a lot of fine results, including many de- 
tailed drawings of the engine sets, torpedo tubes, 
periscope, and navigating appliances, and what 
passes for mess deck and living accommodation. 

180 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

He was a most versatile and excellent artist, to 
whom we owe a deep debt of gratitude. 

The team of artists finally secured, as mem- 
tioned earlier in this chapter, was brought to- 
gether by Commander Walcott at a lunch party 
he gave at the Sports Club in the summer of 1917, 
and a very pleasant and simple little function it 
was. It was there and then decided how to split 
up the work. Sir John Lavery was to do scenes 
at Scapa Flow and Eosyth and other naval bases ; 
Mr. Charles Pears was to do ships up in those 
waters; Mr. Philip Connard was to work from 
Harwich ; Mr. McEvoy was to do portraits of all 
naval V.C.'s, and Mr. Glyn Philpot was to do por- 
traits of those admirals whose fighting record in 
the War stood out apart from all others. No 
sooner was this settled than the ** Fleet orders" 
were drafted and sent up to the fleet (the ground 
having been carefully prepared beforehand, of 
course, and I am not sure that the beautiful wife 
of one of the artists had not done some spade work 
on her own account up in the North) . Very short- 
ly, at any rate, our team was distributed about 
all over the fleets, so far as their numbers made 
it possible. 

Sir John Lavery started at Scapa Flow in the 
depth of winter in conditions which are clearly 
seen in his paintings which were exhibited at the 
Grosvenor Gallery in November, 1918. Since he 
has been knighted ^^ Who's Who'' gives us his 

181 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

age, so I can say without fear of losing a friend 
that it was no mean effort for a man of his years, 
and a very spirited performance, to go and sit on 
the top of Flotta and other exposed points to get 
the pictures, which really represent the bitter 
weather conditions and sombre surroundings in 
which the Grand Fleet spent so many long, dreary 
months. I can only hope that he feels satisfied 
with the result of those expeditions ; certainly the 
nation will appreciate it. 

The Eosyth scenes were done subsequently and 
in better climatic conditions, and they gave an idea 
of a kinder climate and country. The beauties of 
the Firth of Forth are known to millions; the 
drear, treeless, harsh, and uncompromising na- 
ture of Scapa Flow during all but three months 
of the year are fortunately known to few besides 
those 100,000 officers and men of the Grand Fleet. 

My last and most successful piece of work with 
and for Sir John Lavery was done somewhere 
about November, 1918. I saw him that afternoon 
and suggested that, if he was ready to catch a 
train at a moment's notice, I thought he ought to 
be up in the fleet to see the actual arrival on board 
the Queen Elizabeth of the German Admiral (von 
Meurer) who was to come aboard and arrange 
with Sir David Beatty details of the great sur- 
render. Sir John was, of course, enthusiastic, so 
I tore down to the Private Office, my other or 
*' spiritual home" (though since the departure of 

182 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

Mr. Eddie Marsh ^ it had long been **bone dry'')» 
told Gerald Steel, the private secretary, what I 
wanted and that he must go and put it before Sir 
Eric Geddes at once, as I wanted my man to catch 
the train there and then. 

He got me in to the First Lord's room (more 
credit to him, as I do not suppose this was either 
a genial or an easy task if I may judge by the 
rarity of his success in this direction), who read- 
ily gave his consent and signed a drafted wire 
to the Commander-in-Chief setting forth the ne- 
cessity for having this historical event recorded 
for the nation, and otf went my friend Lavery that 
night! I subsequently went through all the tor- 
tures of the damned as I first thought that he 
would arrive too late, and then, as I saw the wire- 
less message saying that von Meurer was in a fog 
and would be late getting into Eosyth, I feared 
the whole scheme would crumble to the ground 
for want of light and so on. However, it turned 
out splendidly. I had underrated the abilities of 
my man; and the picture showing the German 
representatives being received in the dark on the 
quarter-deck of the Queen Elizabeth is a magnifi- 
cent record of this historic event and a priceless 
possession for the nation. All arrangements were, 
as usual, made for Sir John by the Captain of 
the Fleet, Commodore the Hon. Hubert Brand, 
who stowed the artist away right aft, so that he 

*Mr. Edward H. Marsh, C.B., G.M.G., Private Secretary to Mr. 
Winston Churchill. 

183 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

could not possibly be seen, as the large electric 
group lights were between him and the recep- 
tion scene. 

On subsequent days he was also wisely and 
properly permitted to paint the scene of the ac- 
tual conference. Here he was camouflaged as a 
Post-Captain and placed at a table in the corner 
of Sir David's fore cabin, and, with a pile of books 
in front of him, looked as if he were merely taking 
notes of what was going on. So he was, but very 
permanent ones. The small sketch he made on 
that occasion has been shown to the public and 
the finished work in the shape of a large picture 
will be seen in due course. It wiU form a fitting 
coping stone to Sir John Lavery's contribution 
to his bit of war work, which is represented by 
some fifty-seven pictures, presented by him to 
the Imperial War Museum for the nation. 

The next on the list is Philip Connard, who was 
then serving in the army. He had been in France 
for two years or so, and was employed at a school 
of camouflage somewhere in Kensington when I 
wanted him. I had the good fortune to be well 
acquainted and friendly with some soldiers in 
high places, so I was able to get Connard out of 
this work, and he was installed at Harwich inside 
of about a fortnight. The papers, stating that the 
Army Council agreed to lend him temporarily, 
followed on in some three months' time — ^better 
late than never — and I am grateful to them for 
parting with this artist, who produced some fine 

184 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

work. I beg Mr. Connard not to think I am ven- 
turing to give only my own opinion. I am sup- 
ported by the judgments of the great ones of the 
War Museum and of the artistic world. 

I believe Connard had never tried his hand at 
sea painting, but he very soon fell into his niche 
in the Harwich cruiser force. He was still a cap- 
tain in the artillery, and dressed accordingly, and 
so doubtless there were murmurs among the ships 
as to *^why the Admiralty had planted this sol- 
dier on to them when they were constantly out 
strafing,'' &c. That would be the natural 
** grouse'' any self-respecting sailor would permit 
himself before settling down to that which he pre- 
fers before anything, namely — looking after a sol- 
dier. You cannot rob either of them of the broth- 
erhood there is between them, though no doubt 
each thinks the other is slightly mad or half-witted 
because he does his own job his own way. 

I will illustrate this by just telling a little story 
of a talk I had with the embarkation officer at 
Folkestone in September, 1917. I was on my way 
back from one of those officially conducted and 
wonderful tours of our Western Front, where I 
had been amazed and filled with immense pride 
at what I had seen of our Army, and I had just 
missed the London air raid in which a bomb was 
dropped outside the Ritz Hotel, while at the same 
time there had been a very heavy air raid on 
Dover. 

It seems that on that occasion the Vice Admiral 
185 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

at Dover had stopped the homeward leave-boat 
from berthing alongside the pier at Folkestone. 
This, of course, npset all the military officers* ar- 
rangements for getting their trains away and for 
embarking the men whose leave was up, and who 
were **for the Front." Incidentally and quite 
naturally, too, it raised the ire of the embarka- 
tion officer. When we met the following after- 
noon he had some crisp remarks to offer as to 
the action of that Vice Admiral at Dover. I 
presently got my word in and asked him *^how 
many men of the millions who had been carried 
to and fro in the three years just closed had been 
lost?" Not one could he mention, except those 
on the mined hospital ship Anglia. ^^Well, then," 
I said, *^ isn't it fair to admit that the man is do- 
ing his business all right and that he doesn't give 
orders to the transports with any other single 
object in mind but that of the safety of the sol- 
diers? It isn't done merely to annoy you. A 
transport alongside a pier offers a good target 
to a bombing aeroplane, whereas if she is drift- 
ing about apparently without object, she is not 
easy to hit." **Ah well," he said, ** there may be 
something in what you say. It hadn't struck me 
before." So we parted on good terms, each see- 
ing, I hope, the other man's point of view a little 
better. 

When Connard became at home on board he 
was admired for the plucky way in which he stuck 
to his work in all weathers, and he was not an ideal 

186 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

sailor! He made frequent journeys to the sMp's 
side to *^ discharge cargo," but always went back 
to his work, and that accounts, I think, a good deal 
for the real life and movement there is in his 
pictures of the Harwich Force. He was liked, too, 
in all the ward room messes of that squadron — 
no mean accomplishment ! He was out in all sorts 
of ^ * stunts, ' ' including Zeebrugge, and the destruc- 
tion of the Zepp off the German coast on the 11th 
of August, 1918. 

Presently he left the squadron, and I urged 
him to go up to the Grand Fleet and get accus- 
tomed to the heavy ships. They are so utterly 
different to the eye, and their movements are so 
ponderous compared with the swift turning and 
rolling light cruisers. I felt that he miist go and 
get some of these things into his head and on to 
canvas, and after the missing of a few trains (not 
an uncommon trait, this, of the artistic tempera- 
ment) which caused many wires to be sent and 
cancelled and re-sent and so, off he went, and so 
far as I was concerned, with high hopes, I spe- 
cially recommended him, through the good offices 
of a friend known as ^^The Brown Mouse" (who 
was confidential secretary to the Director of Na- 
val Intelligence), to her brother. Lieutenant 
Skrine, who was Torpedo Lieutenant of the ship 
to which he was appointed, and I thought no more 
of him until somebody asked me how Connard was 
getting on and what he was doing. Very light- 
heartedly I said that he was up with the Battle 

187 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Cruiser Fleet and I knew he was getting on all 
right as I hadn't heard anything from or of him 
for about a month and I thought that with artists, 
as with others, no news was good news. I pres- 
ently learned that he was at his studio in London 
and had been there a month. He had the grace 
to admit that he couldn't come and see me and tell 
me his troubles, though I got' them out of him in 
time. He had been two or three days with the 
Fleet, but something had upset him, and he was 
not happy in his new surroundings, and the nec- 
essary atmosphere being lacking he just cleared 
out and that was all ! 

It is perfectly certain that artists can not work 
unless the spirit moves them and the atmosphere 
is congenial, and so, regret it as one may, it is no 
use being upset about it. That chance was gone 
for Connard and for all of us, so it was no use 
lamenting. 

As soon as the Turkish Armistice began to take 
shape it was arranged that Connard should go 
out to the Levant, and I very much hoped that he 
would be able to go up the Dardanelles with Ad- 
miral Calthorpe when he took the ships up to 
Constantinople. It did not work out that way, 
however. Owing to some misunderstandings on 
the way out, notably at Taranto, and, I think, to 
some lack of sympathy displayed by some junior 
officer who happened to be in a position to help 
or to hinder, Connard did not get out in time 
to witness the passage up the Straits. He got 

188 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

hung up in Salonica for some weeks, fuming and 
fretting, and, when finally he got to Constanti- 
nople, he wasn^t very happy but dismal and un- 
settled, though I fancy and hope that he brought 
back some surprises for all of us. He recovered 
his buoyancy when he found his way up to the 
Crimea and again got on board one of his beloved 
Harwich Force Cruisers ! Then all was well, and 
he has some good yams to tell of Captain Eoyd's 
arbitrating between Bolshies and Reds or Blues 
or Blacks, and many kinds of odd negotiations 
that he witnessed. I am sure he does not regret 
his connection with the Royal Navy any more than 
the Navy regrets having had him with them, and 
his work speaks for itself. 

Very early in the. war I became acquainted with 
Mr. Charles Pears, as he had to bring his draw- 
ings to me to be passed before he could place them 
with those illustrated papers for which he princi- 
pally worked at that time. I was already well 
acquainted with his work as a black-and-white art- 
ist in the weeklies, and also with his posters; 
I was familiar, too, with his delightful book, both 
the letterpress and the sketches showing as plainly 
as possible that they were the work of men who 
knew and loved the sea. I was interested, there- 
fore, in meeting him, and one of the early inter- 
views we had led to somewhat prolonged nego- 
tiations in connection with the bridge of boats 
which was established across the lower Thames 
between Tilbury and Gravesend. It was passed by 

189 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

everybody in the Admiralty on the ground that 
as neutral steamers (which were presumably 
crammed full of spies) passed through the bridge 
both inward and outward when working the Port 
of London, no harm could be done by letting the 
general public see what was already known to 
hundreds of thousands of the Kent and Essex 
folk, and no doubt to our enemies also ! 

Unfortunately for Mr. Pears and the drawing, 
I was unable definitely to fix who, in the Admiral- 
ty, was responsible for this bridge, and though I 
marked the picture *' Passed," I suggested to Mr. 
Pears that he might try the War Office, and see 
if anybody there had any objection to its publica- 
tion. That tore it ! Several highly-placed gentle- 
men were for putting Mr. Pears in the Tower, and 
all were for destroying his tell-tale drawing ! How- 
ever, we managed to save him being interned, and 
he got off with the loss of the picture and the cor- 
responding guineas it should have brought him. 
We have had many a laugh over that adventure 
into the realms of D.O.E.A., but since that time 
Mr. Pears never got involved in ** proceedings'* 
again. I saw to that. 

I next employed Mr. Pears in making a series 
of four pictures showing the action between his 
Majesty's ship Prise, one of the ^'Q" boats, and 
a German U-boat. One set of these is now the 
property of the Navy, whilst a replica set has been 
sent to New Zealand to the father (Mr. Sanders) 
of the R.N.R. officer who commanded her. It was 

190 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

well I got this set of pictures done, as on her 
next cruise this gallant little ship was sunk in ac- 
tion with another submarine, and her captain, 
then a V.C., was killed. 

This officer came home from New Zealand when 
the War broke out, and early in 1917 obtained 
his desire to command a ^^Q'' boat. He exhib- 
ited great daring, coolness and skill in an action 
with a German submarine off the south-west cor- 
ner of Ireland, and there was at the time what was 
regarded as ample evidence to show that the ene- 
my vessel had been destroyed. Several of the 
crew of the Priee were badly wounded, and they 
could not receive medical attention until their 
vessel returned to her base. It was little short 
of a miracle that the Prize herself reached port, 
for when the action ended her sides had been 
holed and she was in a sinking condition, with 
the nearest land 120 miles away. Her crew, how- 
ever, refusing to abandon hope, worked with cour- 
age and resource until within five miles from the 
shore, when assistance was obtained. Shortly 
after Lieutenant-Commander Sanders had so 
worthily earned his V.C. he was lost with, all 
hands. The Prize had been unsuccessfully at- 
tacked during the day. The enemy submarine 
hung round until night time, following the track 
of her antagonist, which was at last torpedoed 
presumably at short range, sinking with all on 
board. No one except the Germans witnessed the 
end. Her disappearance would have remained a 

191 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

mystery but for the report subsequently received 
from the British submarine which was working 
with her. When morning came the submarine 
searched for the Pris^e, but could find no trace 
either pf the ship or her crew. 

The former action gave us one of the greatest 
disappointments of the whole war, as the Prize 
brought into harbour the captain of the subma- 
rine, who had jumped overboard from the boat 
when she was sinking, so naturally we all thought 
that here was an absolute certainty. Within about 
four days we got an enquiry via Sweden through 

the Eed Cross asking the whereabouts of ■ , the 

Captain of the German submarine. After much 
argument we were forced to the conclusion that 
the boat had got back home, and this taught every- 
body the necessity for caution in deciding whether 
Boche boats were sunk or not, and accounted for 
the disinclination to publish figures of sinkings. 
I thought the Director of Naval Intelligence and 
his submarine tracker, who prepared pretty 
*' graphs'' of enemy losses, would go off into mel- 
ancholia over this disappointment ! 

I subsequently tried to get Pears to do a series 
of somewhat similar pictures of Captain Gordon 
Campbell's actions, which are real epics; but by 
this time Pears belonged body and soul to the Im- 
perial War Museum, and for some reason or an- 
other, best known to itself, it did not want such 
a set, though I cannot think of any deeds on the 
Naval side more worthy of pictorial record in a 

192 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

National Museum. Tenacity and long sustained 
gallantry, heroism and endurance of punishment, 
are all exemplified in Captain Campbell's actions 
with his three different ' ' Q ' ' boats, and they ought 
to form part of the national records of the country 
in picture as well as in print. I hope and believe 
that presently some one will be inspired to have 
the incidents immortalised. But then, alas, where 
will be the ships? Those which have survived 
will all be back in their trades, the special fittings 
will all be gone, and the artist will have to recon- 
struct and imagine instead of seeing it all vividly 
before him. 

"When he joined our team of Naval artists I 
knew with whom I was dealing, and I sent Mr. 
Petars off to Rosyth with a light heart. He worked 
away up there and produced some thirty pictures, 
the finest of them all being, I think, a large one 
of the Courageous in dry dock, with the whole 
dockyard under snow. It is a bold picture and a 
cold one, for it makes one shiver to look at it. 
I was very glad that it was painted, as it shows 
the ship fitted as a gigantic minelayer, which was 
not her first, or her last, stage of evolution. 

In his other pictures he gives the sea from an 
entirely novel point of view, using the boldness 
of the moderns in his colours. It is attractive and 
I think that even the most conventional must ad- 
mit that it is a fresh aspect of seascape. Perhaps 
his most interesting pictures are a set of four, 
illustrating the expedition which ended in the 

193 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

bringing down of the Zeppelin o:ff the Dutch Coast, 
before referred to. For in these we see the fast 
motor-boats (C.M.B.'s) being released and sent 
off on their hair-raising work, star shells bursting 
and bombs dropping all round the cruisers, and 
the destruction of the Zeppelin. The first picture 
gives us the star shell bursting high up in that 
cold half-hour just before dawn. The artist ad- 
mitted that this star shell, bursting without a 
sound having been heard or anything seen, fairly 
''put the wind up'' him. I am not surprised, 
though I daresay the case-hardened Harwich flo- 
tilla paid but slight attention to it. 

The second picture shows the squadron at dawn 
and the C.M.B.'s just off. The third shows what 
the star shell meant, for huge bombs are dropping 
on each side of the Danae (Pears was on board 
her) from a Boche aeroplane invisible by reason 
of its great height, whilst the fourth picture 
shows, by a little thin white trace of smoke in the 
shape of cigar smoke upside down, the flaming 
Zeppelin falling into the North Sea, having been 
''done in'' by one of the machines flown off the 
lighters specially built for fast towing which 
were attached to the squadron. 

Other artists there were, many of them, across 
whom I came in my work. To mention a few only, 
here is a selection taken at random from my mem- 
ory : W. Eanken, who made some fine drawings of 
the old Admiralty Board Eoom; Bernard Gribble, 
whose acquaintance I made at a Savage Club din- 

194 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

ner, when Admiral Sims was made a Savage, and 
who subsequently, as a result of that dinner, did 
some fine work for the American navy, as well as 
much work which has been seen at the Academy 
and elsewhere; Nelson Dawson, who did much 
good work at Dover ; and Norman Wilkinson, the 
first one of all to be up and doing, for he went out 
to Gallipoli as an assistant paymaster, E.N.V.E., 
and a fine business it was to *^ wangle^' that ap- 
pointment in those early days. 

It was long after his return from there that he 
started and developed the Naval Camouflage 
School in the Academy School underneath the 
Eoyal Academy, and I am glad he has capped all 
his work by the magnificent picture he showed at 
the Royal Academy in 1919, putting on canvas 
with dignity and truth and with true artistry the 
horror and cruelty of a Boche submarine shelling 
an open boat with survivors from one of the vic- 
tims of unrestricted submarine warfare. I hope 
the picture will find a home among our national 
possessions ''Lest We Forget,'' 

As showing that it was not very easy sailing 
for artists who wish to join the Fleet, or for those 
who wished to ^^ plant'' artists on the Fleet for 
purposes of recording certain specific sides of 
naval activities, I will cite one case. 

A young artist was sent by me, at the request 
of one of the Government Departments, to join the 
Battle-Cruiser Fleet. I had of course taken all 
the usual steps, such as the obtaining of pennis- 

195 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

sion from the Commander-in-Chief, &o. He re- 
mained up there about three weeks when I got 
a wire from Eosyth asking me to recall him im- 
mediately, which of course was done, and he 
came south the same night. 

I at once wrote off to the Fleet to find out what 
had gone wrong, and found that as the ship in 
which he had been serving was going to sea, he 
had been landed and presently sent to another 
battle-cruiser, and it was this ship which had 
asked for his removal. On receiving this informa- 
tion I wrote a letter to the captain of the first ship 
in which the artist had lived and also to the second 
captain. The first captain said that the artist was 
a very quiet, particularly nice fellow and all the 
officers would be glad to have him back; and the 
second captain, on board whose ship he was only 
forty-eight hours, said he was insufferable and on 
no account wouldhe have him on board again ! And 
though I pleaded hard, I could never again get 
him up to that Fleet. Such were the trials of art- 
ists, to say nothing of those of the Chief Censor. 

In the summer of 1918 there came to me with 
much trepidation Lieutenant Arnold Forster, 
E.N.V.R., one of the remains of the brilliant crew 
who worked with, and under, and were inspired 
by, Leverton Harris, in the Trade Division of the 
Admiralty. He was literally ^'worked ouf He 
was always of the ^^forty-horse-power in a din- 
ghy'* type, meaning that his energy and zeal were 
in inverse ratio to his physical strength. He very 

196 



ARTISTS AND THE NAVAL WAR 

diffidently asked if I could possibly get him per- 
mission to go in an airship during his forthcom- 
ing leave. Fortunately nothing was easier. Gen- 
eral Cayley, R.A.F. (late Admiral R.N.), was in 
the building, so I tackled him at once, and he read- 
ily agreed, and as he was commanding the Scot- 
tish Air District the whole business was fixed up, 
and Arnold Forster was in the seventh heaven. 

In due course he took his fortnight's leave, and, 
armed with permits, disappeared into Scotland, 
and I heard no more of him until he turned up, 
looking as bright and brown as his mother could 
have wished, with a bundle of drawings under his 
arm. It appears that day after day he had gone up 
in one of the ^'Blimps'' patrolling between Scot- 
land and Ireland, and whilst up there had made 
many charming pictures, one of which at all events 
is unique, for it shows the arrival of the -convoy 
with the largest number of American troops that 
ever crossed the Atlantic. 

These pictures of his, painted midway between 
sky and sea (a bit of license this), are truly ex- 
traordinary. He paints skies of extraordinary 
beauty, and unlike any that I have seen produced 
by any other artist, though they are true enough to 
nature, as any sailor will admit. I am glad to say 
that he offered us two of these pictures for the 
Imperial War Museum, which were gladly ac- 
cepted. I am only sorry he was not employed as 
an artist, instead of assisting to restrict the ene- 
my's trade. 

197 



CHAPTEE Xin 

CENSORING NAVAL LETTERS 

Establishment of the censorship of letters — Its value to the 
blockade — Resentment of censoring in the Navy — Estab- 
lishment of "privilege" letters — Abuse of a good scheme — 
A temporary officer^s lapse — A flight into the realms of 
imagination. 

The censorship of naval letters was done 
throughout the war by officers on board each ship, 
especially told off for the work, usually the chap- 
lain or the doctor and one or two others. Thus 
letters from the Fleet only rarely came my way, 
and yet, for one reason or another, many thou- 
sands have passed through my hands. 

For instance, when a sudden and secret censor- 
ship was imposed on this or that port or area the 
letters were automatically diverted to the *^ Chief 
Postal Censor, London," of whom more anon. The 
results of that **comb out'' used to come to my 
office for disciplinary measures — ^i.e., they were 
submitted to a further and purely naval opinion 
before being sent back to the captain of the ship 
to which the writer belonged. A great number of 
men also posted their letters ashore, against the 
very strict regulations on that point, and pretty 

198 



CENSORING NAVAL LETTERS 

well all such letters found their way to the censor. 

Many hundreds of letters from abroad, from 
ships that did not understand their censorship 
duty, or were too short of officers to carry it out 
properly, as well as letters in unknown lan^ages, 
were sent direct to my office, so that, one way and 
another, a pretty large selection reached me, and, 
of course, some stand out in my memory very 
vividly. 

Here I would refer to the '^ Chief Postal Cen- 
sor," Colonel H. S. Pearson, and his department. 
I had intimate relations with his office during 
the whole time it was in operation. I remember 
the early days of the struggle to get the pos- 
tal censorship imposed first on this country 
and then on that. The fights were long and 
many. The idea of censorship was repugnant, I 
suppose, to many, and it was feared that it would 
involve us in trouble with neutrals. Well, bit by 
bit, those who fought the good fight for censorship, 
and there can be no harm in mentioning them — 
the Director of Special Intelligence, War Office, 
and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiralty, 
and one or two others — ^won the day, and finally 
the postal censorship was strictly enforced on 
all mail matter coming into or going out of this 
country. 

I much doubt if any more powerful weapon in 
enforcing the blockade and ruining the enemy's 
overseas trade ever existed, and I am confident 
that no office set up for war purposes was more 

199 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

efficiently and quietly run tlian tlie postal censor- 
ship. The Americans were shown everything be- 
fore they came into the war, and, I believe, copied 
the organisation, and were whole-hearted sup- 
porters of the work being done. 

I have but one regret arising out of all the many 
dealings I had with Colonel Pearson, and that is 
that I never found time to inspect his museum of 
curiosities, though he invited me to do so many 
times. 

The attitude of the public and of naval people 
generally towards the censorship of letters was 
very curious. Of course, they resented it, but they 
were also a little unreasonable about it. For in- 
stance, if a letter coming from abroad and ad- 
dressed to any captain or admiral serving at the 
Admiralty or in any Government office was 
opened, and bore the label *^ Opened by Censor,'' 
an infuriated officer would come along and say he 
was going to do all sorts of things. It was almost 
waste of time to point out to him that it was really 
extremely difficult to avoid now and again a letter 
being opened which should be exempt. Nobody 
stopped to think of what was entailed by the ^ * Ex- 
empt List,'' and the great difficulty, when sorting 
hundreds of thousands of letters, of avoiding slit- 
ting an envelope before the censor had realised 
that the addressee was on the ** Exempt List." 

Then, although the letter had probably not been 
looked at, the hated label, *' Opened by Censor," 
would be stuck on in order to close it up, followed 

200 



CENSORING NAVAL LETTERS 

by fireworks from the injured officer! Ministers 
and admirals were especialy tender abont this. 
Personally I never could look on censors as any- 
thing else but automata, and they were welcome to 
read any of my effusions and always will be — 
bless them! For I know my own feelings after 
wading through a couple of hundred letters right 
off the reel. All one longs for is an end of it, 
or a possible gleam of sunshine in the shape of 
humour. 

About half-way through 1918 the Navy followed 
the Army practice and instituted the use of ^* priv- 
ilege" envelopes. They were intended specially 
for family men, and were free of ship censorship. 
Each sender had to sign a certificate on the front 
of the envelope to the effect that the letter only re- 
ferred to family affairs and had nothing to do 
with the Navy. The men were told that the ship 
censorship would not be exercised on these *^ privi- 
lege * ' envelopes, but that they would be made up 
in a separate bag and sent to London for censor- 
ship. That removed the personal element, which 
was a good deal resented, especially in very small 
ships, where the men thought the officer carrying 
out censorship duties on board learned too much 
about their private and home life. At the same 
time we arranged with the Chief Postal Censor to 
tackle 10 per cent, of these letters to see how the 
men understood the meaning of the undertaking 
given in signing the certificate. 

I should say that at least half the writers at once 
201 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

said, **Well, thank God, the censorship is off, and 
I can now tell everything," and, amongst many 
other items of news, were conveyed such bits of 
information as these : the times and dates of de- 
partures of ships from one port and of their ar- 
rival at another ; the losses of other ships ; inten- 
tion to desert at a given time and place ; proposals 
to send serge, flannel, &c. (against the regula- 
tions) ; the brutality of the treatment being en- 
dured, and the chronic drunkenness of everybody 
in authority — truly a strange assortment ! 

However, that phase soon passed, as these let- 
ters were returned to the ships concerned, and the 
writers were, I presume, made to realise that they 
were jeopardising the success of a really good 
scheme; and within three months ** privilege" let- 
ters were normal and were being honestly used 
for what they were intended. 

Little bits of humorous reading stick in my 
memory, of which the two following are outstand- 
ing examples of epistolary excellence, each in its 
own particular style and subject. 

The first came from a temporary officer in the 
North, where he had charge of some local de- 
fence guns and the crews to man them, and so 
on. In due course came to him a Zeppelin. This 
and solitude, I suppose, fired his brain, so he sat 
down and wrote sheets — ^many of them — to a lady 
with whom he must have been on friendly terms 
residing in a neutral country. He gave her a true 
and faithful account of the number of guns under 

202 



CENSORING NAVAL LETTERS 

his charge and every sort and kind of detail for 
which the enemy would have paid much money. 
Among all this priceless information there were 
interlarded particulars of the Zeppelin raid and 
other details suggesting what might have hap- 
pened if the lady had been sharing his lonely vigil 
with him. Here he allowed his imagination and 
descriptive powers free rein. In fact, he must 
have been a close and careful student of Byron 
and Swinburne, but he had them both **left at the 
posf or among the *^also rans.'' 

This letter was a bit of a puzzler to deal with. 

However, with the aid of some scissors and at 
the expenditure of a good deal of patience, I 
managed to excise every bit of information, and 
stuck the pieces carefully on to other sheets of 
paper, and allowed the imaginative and descrip- 
tive parts of the letter to proceed to their destina- 
tion, having carefully surrounded every excision 
with my little ** Chief Censor'' *^chop,'' or stamp, 
so that there could be no doubt as to who had had 
to wade through this inflammatory epistle. The 
officer was presently confronted with his indis- 
cretions, or, rather, stupidities, in the way of com- 
municating information, and was officially and 
severely ^^ strafed." So much for that letter. 

The next was of a totaly different sort. It came 
from a N.C.O., and I don't quite remember how 
or why it fell into my hands, but it was a real 
masterpiece. It was addressed to the fiancee of 
the writer, she being in South Wales, and it was 

203 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

as fine a piece of fiction as I have ever read. If 
only the writer of it would come out into the world 
of literature Jeffery Farnol would have to look 
to his laurels. Here there were no journeys or 
flights into the realms of love. It was a case of 
sheer Service doings, without ornamentation, but 
without a shadow of foundation of truth. 

The writer described how he had been on a long 
and hazardous enterprise, for which he had been 
specially selected by his captain on account of his 
knowledge of, and enterprise in, handling boats 
and explosives. He proceeded to give a good ac- 
count of his journey across the North Sea in a 
dinghy, with the captain, to Heligoland. He de- 
scribed in detail the difficulties and dangers they 
had encountered in climbing up the glacis of the 
gun-emplacements on that island; how they had 
overpowered and killed, of course without a sound, 
each sentry who was unwise enough to obstruct 
their path; how they had blown up all the guns 
one after the other, and the wild excitement of the 
chase, which culminated in their launching their 
dinghy and finally escaping. It was a beautiful 
yarn, and one felt happy to think how much lighter 
the dinghy must have pulled on the return journey, 
all their explosives having been landed and ex- 
pended, and how uplifted their hearts must have 
been, knowing the gallant work had been success- 
fully accomplished. 

All this was given as the reason for the long 
interval that had elapsed since the last letter to 

204 



CENSORING NAVAL LETTERS 

his love. Let us hope she believed it all. It was 
really quite convincing, and must have been read 
with pride to all the family. The writer said that 
he was in hospital owing to *^ exposure.*' This 
was partly true. The fact, however, was that the 
writer was laid by in a military hospital in Chat- 
ham under treatment for a disease which I am 
credibly informed could not have been contracted 
on his Majesty's Service, in the strict acceptation 
of that phrase. 



205 



CHAPTER XIV 

WIRELESS AND WAR NEWS 

Censors at the Marconi Company's Stations — The Wireless 
Press, Ltd. — Early Russian news — Protest by Reuters — 
Sir Edward Carson's position — Intervention by the Home 
Secretary — A fine war record. 

From the beginning of tlie War by reason of my 
position, which was then ** Chief Censor of Radio 
Telegraphy/* I was necessarily brought into the 
closest possible working relations with the Mar- 
coni Company. I installed censors at their sta- 
tions at Clifton (Co. Galway) and Poldhu (Corn- 
wall) two days before war was declared. At first 
these officers had to sleep in tents, one room be- 
ing given over to them as an office in which they 
kept watch day and night without intermission 
until August 4th, 1917, when the Trans-Atlantic 
commercial wireless traffic ceased altogether. 
Clifton was closed down completely,^ on that date, 
though it was kept in readiness to restart at twen- 
ty-four hours' notice. Poldhu was taken over by 
the navy and used for naval work only, one of 
my censors remaining in charge. Very soon it 
was found that in two such exposed places as 

* The only reason for closing it down was the very remote pos- 
sibility of a leakage of intelligence regarding movements of U. S. 
troops by means of faked commercial messages. 

206 



WIRELESS AND WAR NEWS 

Clifton and Poldhn it was not possible for the 
officers, who were all elderly retired men, to con- 
tinue living in tents, and the Marconi Company 
had to provide living accommodation for them. 

At Glace Bay (Nova Scotia), the receiving and 
transmitting station on the other side of the At- 
lantic, there were also censors, provided from 
Canada and working under my ;colleague, the 
Chief Censor of the War Office. This arrange- 
ment might be thought cumbersome and might 
have led to difficulties, but for the work of Cap- 
tain J. H. Trye, R.N. (Naval Adviser to the Chief 
Censor of the War Office) and the latter 's cordial 
co-operation. 

From the beginning, therefore, I had almost 
daily meetings with Mr. Bradfield, the Manager 
of the Marconi Company. At no time during the 
whole of the War was there ever a hitch in our 
working with the Company, and when difficulties 
cropped up it was sufficient for Mr. Bradfield to 
be freely and openly informed of them by me to 
have the matter settled by a little give and take 
between us. If his staff had complaints to make 
against the members of my staff (which was quite 
unavoidable with these people cooped up together 
in uncomfortable surroundings and working at 
high pressure far from civilisation), he put the 
case to me and we managed to arrange things 
amicably all around. 

He had a sort of a ''wing three-quarter'' whom 
207 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

he could despatch at a moment's notice, and I made 
similar use of Captain Harold Christian, R.N., 
who dropped in for a month's stay wherever any 
trouble was brewing, and between them things got 
quieted down. 

Unfortunately on the 1st of November, 1917, 
Captain Christian was knocked down outside the 
North Door of the Admiralty by a taxi-cab one 
evening when going out to dinner, and died in 
Charing Cross Hospital the next day. He was 
a great loss to me, and as we had joined the Navy 
together, I felt his death very keenly. 

Early in 1914, i.e., before the War, the Mar- 
coni Company had hatched out, or rechristened, 
one of its subsidiary companies which was called 
the ** Wireless Press Ltd." From August, 1916, 
onwards the earliest news of all military and 
most political events in Eussia was always re- 
ceived in this country by wireless. 

In 1916, owing to the fact that the Russian and 
Eoumanian communiques received by cable ar- 
rived many hours later than the German wireless 
reports dealing with the same events, and were 
frequently twenty-four hours behind the Germans 
in their publication in British, French, and Dutch 
newspapers, the Wireless Press sent representa- 
tives to Petrograd and Bucharest to persuade the 
Russian and Roumanian Governments to radiate 
immediately their communiques by wireless. The 
result was that Russian conmiuniques, during the 
great Russian offensive, were printed in the Brit- 

208 



WIRELESS AND WAR NEWS 

ish evening papers actually on the day of their 
issue and alongside the German versions of the 
same evening. This business was beginning to 
thrive when in the autumn of 1916 objection was 
taken to it by Renter's and other organisations, 
w'ho took the matter up with the Post Master 
General, the Press Bureau, and finally with me. 

I received from Renter's a long and very 
strongly worded letter protesting against the ex- 
istence and activities of this new Press Agency. 
Other letters followed, also interviews with Mr. 
Godfrey Charles Isaacs supported by Messrs. 
Bradfield and Allen. One of these interviews last- 
ed an hour and a half, and those who know Mr. 
Isaacs' eloquence and cogency in argument will 
realise that so far as talking was concerned I had 
a comparatively light task, whilst on the other 
hand my case and brains had to work over- 
time ! We parted on good terms, I having induced 
him to agree to issue his ** Wireless Press" mat- 
ter free not only to his subscribers but to the 
whole Press of the country, the only stipulation 
being that the messages used should bear the cap- 
tion ** British Admiralty Intercepts collected by 
the Wireless Press," thus showing that the mes- 
sages were being received at stations under Ad- 
miralty control and were being translated and 
edited and so on by the *' Wireless Press." 

This did not satisfy Renter's, who returned to 
the attack. Some of the papers also complained 
that the caption was too long and that they could 

209 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

not afford the necessary space. Eventually the 
question was taken to the First Lord, Sir Edward 
Carson. This First Lord was always accessible to 
me as he was to all Heads of Departments 
and his subsequent departure was keenly regretted 
throughout the Admiralty. As he had been coun- 
sel for the Marconi Company in some former case 
he wisely declined to touch it, and asked his col- 
league, the Home Secretary (Sir George Cave^), 
to go into the matter and come to a settlement. 
This Sir George Cave agreed to do, since he was 
the Cabinet Minister responsible for the Press 
Bureau and, therefore, for the distribution of 
these messages. Meetings were held in his rooms 
at the Home Office, the existing arrangements 
were upheld, and on the 18th of December, 1916, 
the caption ** Admiralty per Wireless Press" was 
settled upon. The Press soon fell into the way 
of using these messages when they were of use 
to them and matters went along quietly for a 
time. 

When the Department of Information of the 
Foreign Office got into their swing, I found that 
flank attacks were being made on this Wireless 
Press matter, and I was approached by one offi- 
cial in that building as to getting details of the 
cost to the Wireless Press of collecting, typ- 
ing, translating, editing and distributing the mes- 
sages. One shilling expended by me at Somerset 
House soon showed me that the gentleman making 

* Afterwards raised to the Peerage as Lord Cave. 

210 



WIRELESS AND WAR NEWS 

the enquiry was a Director of Eeuter's, and as I 
did not propose pumping one company for infor- 
mation which might reach one of its rivals, I de- 
clined to take any action in the matter. 

As the War went on and Russia went ** Bolshy," 
the Wireless Press received about the only news 
of much value from that country and, in the later 
stages of the War, from Germany too ; and I sup- 
pose its position is now pretty, well established. 
In any case I was not concerned with the rights 
or wrongs of the question as to whether the Mar- 
coni Company should be permitted to sell news, 
received through the air, that being a matter, as 
I understand it, for the General Post Office. All 
my interest was to see that the Government did 
not pay for work done in collecting these mes- 
sages, except in so far as translating them went, 
and that the messages should pass without fail 
through the Directors of the Press Bureau to be 
censored and rendered innocuous before issue to 
the public. 

This brief account of what was in fact a very 
long and somewhat bitter quarrel between two 
rival trade organisations may seem superfluous, 
but the participants must forgive me for letting 
the public see into this little known chapter in the 
news distributing side of the War. 

In conclusion, I can say that whilst many firms 
undoubtedly served the country well during the 
war, certainly none did finer work than the Mar- 
coni Company, and without exception I found that, 

211 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

whether as a Company or in its individual officers 
from the Chairman down, their word was their 
bond, and it was a pleasure and a satisfaction to 
have dealings with them. 

(N.B. You may search the share register since 
the inception of the Company down to the present 
time and you will not find my name or that of any 
member of my family in it ! This is for the bene- 
fit of those who think when they hear the name 
**Marconi Company" they smell a share deall) 



212 



CHAPTER XV 



ODDS AND ENDS 



Lord Fisher and the Chief Censor — "Take your hat off, or 
stop outside" — My office decorations — The search for 
cinema operators — How the War Office scored — The "M" 
branch of the Admiralty — Films for Murmansk at short 
notice — How we obtained a new gas — Newspaper men in 
Convoys — Sir John Bland-Sutton's novel holiday — A visit 
from Mr. Charles Schwab — Provision of lecturers and 
entertainers for the Grand Fleet — Mr. Maynard Keyne's 
lectures at the Admiralty — A method of dealing with 
bores — Advantage of personal interviews — ^Danger of an 
Official Publicity Department. 

EuMMAGiNG about in my memory I come across 
little odds and ends of occurrences, points of view, 
and so on, which may appropriately enough, I 
think, be grouped together under this heading. 
They do not come along in chronological order. 
They *^ outcrop,'' so to say, from the mass of rem- 
iniscences which lie about in frightful disorder in 
my brain, due, I suppose, to my having had no 
time to comb out that brain, or to let the ferment- 
ing and boiling inside it settle down. 

A kind shipowner, Mr. Frank Houlder, with 
whom I had frequently come into contact during 
the war, invited me to join a tour he had organised 

213 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

to go to South. America and back. I accepted, of 
course, and this would have given me an ideal 
holiday on demobilisation and the opportunity of 
a rest in which I purposed writing these recollec- 
tions. The trip, however, fell through, owing, as 
Mr. Houlder said, to all the respectable members 
having dropped out ! 

The cry for bread from my belongings being 
loud and insistent, I therefore returned imme- 
diately to the office of the shipbuilding company 
where I had been working before the war, and I 
found that, in the rush of that new life with its 
complete break from all the tragic happenings of 
the last four and a half years, all my energy was 
absorbed, so for three months I put this book into 
the background. 

"When I was urged to get on with it, I took to 
writing in the early mornings, and during a visit 
to Glasgow, where, having no friends, I stayed in 
my dismal hotel during the week-ends, I was able 
to write in peace. If you know Glasgow on a Sun- 
day you will not wonder at this. 

As to writing in the early mornings, I learnt 
that habit from my old master, Lord Fisher, when 
I was on his staff at Portsmouth. This reminds 
me that I met him in St. James's Square this 
spring, after I had left the Admiralty. The cheery 
old gentleman {then cheery, mark you — not al- 
ways so in the past !) tackled me and walking along 
with his arm rove through mine, asked me if, 
as he was informed, it was true that I had stopped 

214 



Jit l^^Vl^ Ij*^^. ^^ 

|vAf Vo^s^ stW: te^^^ 



216 










217 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

a cable from Lord Northcliffe to America whicli 
had cost £1000 (some message it must have been, 
supposing that such a one had ever been sent) 
on the sole grounds that his (Lord Fisher's) name 
was mentioned in it? I laughingly assured him 
that there was, to the best of my recollection, no 
truth whatever in the story. ''That is just as 
well,'' remarked the old champion, ''as all those 
who get in my way, come to a nasty end. They all 
die of worms in the stomach or some other horrible 
complaint, ' ' to which he added that he had walked 
eleven miles the day before and would outlive a 
good many of his old enemies— which I don't 
doubt. 

It was in December, 1914, when I received a let- 
ter from Lord Fisher, and I here give a facsimile 
copy of it, from which may be divined his personal 
attitude to Censors. 

Early in the War I found that through being 
of a somewhat too facile disposition, perhaps, 
or possibly owing to the *' toughness" of those 
with whom I had principally to do, my office was 
considered a place in which it was quite in order 
to behave as you were accustomed to behave from 
wherever you came. The ordinary courtesies of 
life, as I understood them, were not handed around 
so that you could notice them, so I found it neces- 
sary to pin a notice on the outside of my door, 
"Take Youk Hat Off — Or Stop OuTsmE." This 
seemed to amuse the young clerks in our end of 
the building, for they removed the notice a good 

218 



ODDS AND ENDS 

few times until we took such steps that they could 
not remove it without taking the door too, and it 
became a recognised landmark. Also some of my 
visitors, though in certain cases it almost needed 
an operation, came to recognise the fact that even 
though we were censors we were entitled to ordi- 
nary civility. 

My room had only three decorations, as I 
thought austerity was the proper note (which I 
suppose accounts also for my having no 
**peaches'' or other charming damsels allotted 
to work under me). These decorations were: 

(a) The beautiful poster issued early in the 
war called ^^A Sceap of Papee." 

(b) An ^^ Evening News" Poster ^'Aee We 
Ready foe the FokkeesT' (So far as our office 
was concerned, we were), 

(c) ''No Change Given/' 

Subsequently, owing to the kindness of some 
of my American colleagues, I was able to decorate 
the wall opposite to me with one of their recruit- 
ing posters. My particular one represented a 
sweetly pretty American girl dressed as a sailor 
and pointing to anybody who passed, but always 
to me, ''Gee! But I Want You." That was 
because there was 3,000 miles of water between 
us and we hadn't been introduced I expect. Had 
she come earlier in the War — well, I will not spec- 
ulate as to what would have happened. But even 
after three years her charming face was very dis- 
turbing. I only hope it did not make me either 

219 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

careless or over-lenient in going througli proof 
sheets ! 

I have written elsewhere of our cinema business 
and I feel that I must add to that the story of my 
search for operators. Several first-class men 
were offered to me by my friends in the cinema 
trade, and the men were willing enough to come. 
But the Admiralty is an honest place, quixotically 
so, as no doubt the trade thought, for as each man 
came along my first question was what was his 
* ^ category, ' ' ^ ^ grade, ' ' or whatever the term hap- 
pened to be at the moment. If the reply came *'A'' 
or ^^B," I simply had to refuse him, and I lost half 
a dozen excellent men that way, and had the satis- 
faction of seeing them within a week in khaki and 
flat boots still turning the handle of the cinema 
machine, while I continued to starve for opera- 
tors. 

Well, I believe I finally got the pick of the 
bunch, and only because he had been in the Navy 
and the War Office couldn't gobble him up! The 
War Office had no conscience, or perhaps I should 
say the Military had none — or was it Lord^eaver- 
brook? 

All sorts of odd jobs gradually drifted to me. 
For instance, it came to be generally accepted that 
if anybody wanted any sort of information he 
had better ask the Chief Censor's Office; ^^they 
were sure to know.'' I suppose this was arrived 
at, because, as I have already said, we had every 
sort and kind of secret information (obviously 

220 



ODDS AND ENDS 

not for distribution) and we kept as fairly com- 
plete files as we could with our small staff. But 
the value of a chronological diary of events dur- 
ing the War, for general use, and in the hands of 
somebody who could be wisely reticent, would 
have been priceless, though I daresay it would 
have been difficult to arrange. 

Many of my friends in the Navy, and possibly 
some people outside of it, have heard of that mys- 
terious branch of the Admiralty called ^^M'* 
Branch, the ''M'' standing for ''Military.'' I 
heard many naval officers abuse it, probably be- 
cause it was composed of civilians. Well, my own 
experience was that ''M" Branch, which, so far 
as I could judge, represented the best brains in 
the Admiralty combined with good sense and an 
almost infinite capacity for work, was the best 
friend of the Naval officer employed at the Ad- 
miralty. 

When I had a huge dossier from which to ex- 
tract one sheet of precis or facts, or whenever a 
particularly nasty question had to be answered, 
or statements rebutted or countered, and there 
was a stream of people waiting for decisions in 
my office, my motto was, ' ' Go to the Head of ' M, ' ' ' 
and I was never disappointed. Anderson, Flint, 
or Nicholson,^ were always ready to help, and I 
can never sufficiently express my gratitude to 
them. Oh, the questions that had to be tackled! 
There was the Baralong, the hospital ships, Jut^ 

*Mr. J. W. S. Anderson, C.B., Mr. A. Flint and Mr. W. F. 
Nicholson, C.B. 

221 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

land, some reply to a German wireless, or a ques- 
tion in the House of Commons — any number of 
big thorny subjects. I would dart along the pas- 
sage, *^blow in'' with a huge file of papers, dump 
them on the table, and say, ^^Here, for goodness' 
sake, get me out a decent reply to this as quick as 
you can," and bolt before the victim had time to 
look around. They never failed, however, to de- 
liver the goods. 

I do not think that their position is in doubt in 
the estimation of all officers who have ever served 
at the Admiralty, and when it is known that 
practically every head of a Department is re- 
cruited from men who have been in * ' M " Branch, 
the justice of the outcry against the civil element 
may be questioned. 

Amongst the **odd jobs" I referred to was the 
following : At about 7 :00 p.m. one day, the First 
Sea Lord, Sir Eosslyn Wemyss, sent for me and 
told me to send off a. cinema outfit to Murmansk at 
once, as our fellows up there were not having a 
good time. It was no use cross-questioning him; 
he was away down the passage on some other busi- 
ness, so I went back to my work. I knew the cin- 
ema trade pretty well, and I knew also that at 
7 :15 p.m. they are not sitting in their offices. More 
probably they would be preparing to *'blow" 
some of their fabulous wealth! However, by 10 
a.m. the next day, I was sitting in Sir William 
Jury's office and he will have to admit that I beat 
him by about half an hour. 

222 



ODDS AND ENDS 

When he did arrive he sorted out my vague re- 
quirements, told me what, in his judgment, would 
be likely to keep a ship's company happy, and, 
to make a long story short, we shipped away by 
the Naval train that same afternoon, at 4 o'clock, 
£1600 worth of cinema stuif, including a complete 
projecting outfit and some 60,000 feet of films — 
not a bad performance, without a written word 
exchanged between any of the parties to the deal. 
If the ordinary official methods had been followed 
of asking for tenders and so on, we should not 
have got the outfit in a month or more, and would 
quite likely have had more to pay for it. I should 
like to add that I invariably found the cinema 
trade reasonable and generous where the Navy 
(whether American or British) was concerned. 

Another odd job came my way through the late 
American Ambassador. I was at luncheon with 
him one day and he introduced me to a Major 
Owens, who had come over from the Bureau of 
Mines in the States to lay before our people a 
proposal for utilising some non-inflammable nat- 
ural gas which had been found in some inland dis- 
trict of that vast and wonderful continent. 

The major did not appear to know to whom to 
apply, and the Ambassador asked me if I could put 
him in the right path. I thought I could, and I 
arranged for him to call on me the next day, a 
Thursday, at my office. The value of the gas, 
which I believe was known as ^^ Helium Gas," or 
* * Gas X, ' ' and was non-inflammable, was undoubt- 

223 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

ed, if it proved to be what was claimed for it. 
Its use for lighter-than-air ships was obvious, so 
I took Major Owens down to the Hotel Cecil to see 
my old friend Commodore Paine, then Head of the 
Naval Air Service (he has since become a General 
or a Chaplain General, I know not what — probably 
the latter). 

Commodore Paine had a room in the Admiralty 
as well as at the Hotel Cecil, as the *' lighter-than- 
air'' staff worked in the Admiralty. He lost no 
time, and called a meeting of his experts at 4 
o'clock that afternoon at which Major Owens was 
invited to be present. The whole business was 
settled at that meeting, and three of our Naval 
Air people left for the States on the Saturday 
boat. This struck the Major as pretty ** slick" 
work. The result of this enterprise coincided with 
the signing of the Armistice, for the first shipment 
of this gas left the States for this country in mid- 
November, 1918. 

Major Owens, who was in reality a Professor 
at Yale, or Harvard, and who had spent six years 
at Cambridge University, came many times into 
contact with me after this, for he was made Head 
of the Photographic Department (both still and 
moving) of General Biddle's headquarters in this 
country. In that capacity, he made many appli- 
cations to me for permits for his men to take pho- 
tographs and films of ships disembarking U. S. 
troops at various ports, etc. The Headquarters 
of the U. S. Army in France wanted all these pho- 

224 



ODDS AND ENDS 

tographs and films developed in Paris, where they 
had fine premises equipped for the purpose, but 
to this I would not agree. I insisted that nothing 
which showed any of our ships in docks should go 
out of this country till I had seen it developed 
and passed it. In this I was helping Major Owens, 
who wished to have his developing done here un- 
der his own control. 

He was sent to me two or three times to see if 
I would alter my attitude, and my reply every 
time was the same, *^I stand pat." 

I had good reason for doing so too! For on 
one occasion the French Naval authorities, to 
whom we had supplied hundreds of miles of anti- 
submarine nets and whom we had shown how to 
load the net-laying vessels and so on, as the out- 
come of our very great experience at this business, 
had a film taken of the whole proceedings, passed 
it by their Censors in Paris; and the first thing 
I knew of it was that I was being ** strafed" for 
having allowed its exhibition in the halls in this 
country, whilst we were treating the whole mat- 
ter of nets with the greatest possible secrecy. 

No, if naval matter was to be photographed 
or filmed here, even by our good friends the 
Americans, I claimed the right to see it before it 
went to join their very capable army of propa- 
ganda merchants ! 

Major Owens and I parted on the very best of 
terms, and I look forward to renewing my ac- 
quaintance with him in his own country presently ; 

225 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

still helium gas, non-inflammable, is an odd subr 
stance for me to have been mixed up in ! 

As the outcome of one of our Press Conferences 
it was decided to let journalists go on convoy 
ships, and many availed themselves of the oppor- 
tunities thus offered, and wrote informative ar- 
ticles on the subject. That being in their ordinary 
line of business I do not propose to enlarge on it, 
but the following case is in a different category. 
As soon as it was decided to permit, and indeed 
to encourage, newspaper men to venture on these 
trips in convoys, my friend, Mr. H. A. Grwynne of 
the Mornmg Post, wrote to me and said he wished 
to arrange for Sir John Bland-Sutton, the well- 
known surgeon, to do one of these journeys on 
behalf of the Morning Post, and he rather took my 
breath away when he suggested a Trans-Atlantic 
convoy for Sir John. However, I told him it 
could be arranged and he asked me to meet Sir 
John at lunch at the Bath Club, where Sir John 
promised to come and see me at my office the fol- 
lowing day. 

When he came and was seated at one side of 
my table, I really felt rather uncomfortable. My 
father warned me in my youth that if I drank 
much water I should have a *^ pendulous abdo- 
men. ' * Owing to a wise discretion in the consump- 
tion of water, I had not achieved the predicted de- 
velopment, but there was and is a slight protu- 
berance on which it seemed to me that the great 
surgeon's eyes were fixed like gimlets. I tried to 

226 



ODDS AND ENDS 

slip further and further down into my chair so 
that the table might be interposed between his 
gaze and its object, and we carried on our strictly 
technical conversation in regard to convoy ships, 
cruisers, dates, trains, permits, notices to be given 
to transport officers at Liverpool and St. John's, 
New Brunswick, etc. I with a growing fear that 
Sir John would have me on a table some day if 
I drank water; he probably came to the conclu- 
sion that there was nothing wrong with me, ex- 
cept that I was the Chief Naval Censor. 

Well, off he went, and I must say I admired hini, 
for he selected a slow convoy, i.e. one that crossed 
the Atlantic at about seven or eight knots ! How- 
ever, he was on his holiday and did not mind. It 
was his way of taking a long holiday in the most 
restful and health-giving surroundings, always 
provided that ^^Feitz'' did not make any offen- 
sive overtures. 

Sir John had about two days on the other side 
of the Atlantic and returned in another slow con- 
voy, and I am safe in saying he enjoyed every 
minute of his adventure and came back well rested 
and refreshed and wrote a series of articles for 
the Morning Post which were excellent reading. 
I dined with him subsequently at his house in 
Brook Street, when I met the late Sir Samuel 
Evans and Mr. Gwynne, old friends these three, 
and Sir John certainly did not try to ruin my fig- 
ure by forcing much water on me. 

Early in the War I had a strange meeting with 
227 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

the great Mr. Charles Schwab, head of the Beth- 
lehem Steel works. He was brought to my evilly 
lighted office one evening just before 6 o 'clock in 
November, 1914, by Mr. Albany Fetch, his agent 
in this country. 

I was writing hard to catch the country post out 
at 6 :00 p.m., and without looking up I said rather 
shortly, **I don't care who you are, take a seat 
until the mail goes out." When the mail was fin- 
ished and gone I said, **Now I am ready for you, 
whoever you are.'' Whereupon Mr. Fetch intro- 
duced me to Mr. Schwab, and I was naturally very 
apologetic for having kept him waiting in such 
an unceremonious way. However, I reminded him 
that the last time we had been in the same town 
together was during the Eevolution in Fekin when 
he had been trying to sell battleships drawing 31 
feet of water to the Chinese, presumably to fight 
their wars up the inland creeks with 8 feet of 
water, etc. We had a cheery talk and fixed up the 
method of handling his cables. Every one of his 
messages, in or out, was coded or decoded in my 
office and its contents forwarded to their destina- 
tion. This method was followed throughout the 
war. 

Amongst other jobs which fell to my lot was the 
provision of lecturers for the Grand Fleet, and I 
am afraid this business was not sufficiently worked 
up, whether owing to real or imaginary difficul- 
ties or to lack of desire for lectures I do not know. 
The fact remains that but few lecturers visited the 

228 



ODDS AND ENDS 

Fleet. Amonst tlie few were Sir Filippo de 
Filippi, K.C.M.G., the well-known traveller and 
head of the Italian Propaganda Mission in this 
country, and Mr. Hilaire Belloc, and I am pretty 
sure that if the latter had been made to feel that 
his lecture was appreciated he would have offered 
to repeat it, or give others. I happen to know 
how bitter was the disappointment of some offi- 
cers who were present in the port when he deliv- 
ered his lecture, but who never even knew he was 
up in those parts, let alone being notified that he 
was going to lecture. 

American gentlemen, professors, bankers, and 
many others were all keen to go up, also Sir Harry 
Britain, Sir Graham Bower, and many more, but, 
with one or two exceptions, the tours never came 
off, and I am sure that if there had been any real 
keenness in the Commander-in-Chief ^s staff to 
have them, the lecture business would have gone 
with a snap. 

Again another form of my activities was to try 
to provide some entertainment for the Fleet and 
specially for those who were stationed at that 
God-forsaken place, Scapa Flow. Miss Lena Ash- 
well urged me again and again to get permission 
for her concert parties to go up to the North, for 
coming as she does of an old naval family, she 
was particularly anxious to do something for the 
Fleet, and, as she pointed out, her concert par- 
ties had been on all our fighting fronts for three 
years, and never a word of complaint had been 

229 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

registered against them. On the contrary, they 
had been uniformly and increasingly successful, 
the class of show improving in quality and the 
attendance growing month by month. 

I was well aware the Fleet at Scapa was not 
quite the same thing as being ashore, where no 
matter how close up to the Front the party might 
be, a motor lorry could take them ten or fifteen 
miles back to billets in an hour or so, still, if the 
party were on board a ship suddenly ordered to 
sea, a motor launch or drifter could remove them 
and dump them on board the Depot ship Imperi- 
euse until the daily passenger steamer arrived first 
thing in the morning; and this was a contingency 
for which Miss AshwelPs parties were quite pre- 
pared and willing to face, but I failed to get that 
permission. 

On one occasion early in 1918, Mr. — ^now Sir — 
Harry Lauder offered to go and spend three 
weeks in the Fleet at Scapa. I urged the accept- 
ance of this offer as strongly as I possibly could, 
but was told that ^'the men were all right,'' **we 
are too busy;'' and he was ^^ choked off." It was 
in vain that I tried to put the case to the Fleet 
from the purely financial side. What would any 
of the big music-hall proprietors put such an offer 
at in cash? That argument left the Fleet cold. 
They weren 't being asked to give or forego cash. 
I tried to picture the wild delight half an hour of 
Harry Lauder would give on the upper deck of a 

230 



ODDS AND ENDS 

battleship, no scenery, no *' props," nothing being 
required, except perhaps a piano. 

It was useless. The offer had to be turned 
down, and even now I cannot help thinking that 
the appalling boredom of the lower-deck life was 
not really appreciated. Football and boxing 
matches are no doubt keenly interesting to the 
men of every ship. So are their own theatricals 
and they are excellently done too. But it is all 
like taking in one another ^s washing, whereas my 
contention was that the fleet needed a breath of 
life from outside. 

About Whitsun in 1918, I arranged with Mr. 
Harry Tate ^ to take up a small party to Eosyth, 
and to show what sort of a job this is, I will briefly 
set out the arrangements which had to be made to 
enable such a tour to be carried out. To start 
with, it was necessary to recognise the generosity 
of such a party in giving up their week-end, for 
goodness knows there is no harder worked body 
of people than those engaged in the ^^two shows a 
day" houses, such as the Hippodrome. The party 
included Mr. E. V. Lucas, who was going, I think, 
to talk to the party on the way up on English and 
foreign letters and to pave the way for a lecture 
on this subject later on. Mr. Harry Tate had a 
new cardboard motor car made, such as the one 
that he uses for his famous *'show," to pack in a 
very small space. 

We fijxed up with the Hippodrome management 

*Tlie well known music hall artist. 

231 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

that he should come off at 10 :20 p.m. on the Sat- 
urday night instead of staying on till the curtain 
at 10 :30. We were to have cars ready at the stage 
door, rush the party to St. Pancras for the 10 :30 
north-bound Irain which was due at Glasgow 
about 8 a.m. on the following morning. There we 
gave them about two hours for bath and breakfast, 
and I had arranged or wangled two cars to take 
them from Glasgow to Hawes Pier, Rosyth, arriv- 
ing there at noon on Whit Sunday. They were 
then to go on board to lunch, and Mr. Tate un- 
dertook to give five half-hour shows during the 
afternoon on board five different ships between 2 
o'clock and 6 p.m. They were to land at 7 :30 and 
catch the 9:30 p.m. north-bound train and play 
again at the Hippodrome at 2 p.m. on Monday — 
no mean effort I 

Well, this was accepted, and we were all very 
keen on the business when, during Saturday after- 
noon, I received a wire saying it was regretted, 
etc., and that the fleet had gone or was going to 
sea. I forget which. Whether they had got ' ^ cold 
feet'' at the idea of the shrieks of ^^ Pa-Pa," 
which would have resounded all over the Firth of 
Forth as Mr. Tate moved from ship to ship, or 
what was the real cause, I don't know; but as to 
the ^^ fleet going or gone to sea," I had used the 
same formula too often myself when *' booming 
off" undesirables to be much impressed by that 
very threadbare excuse. 

Down at our end of the business, at the Ad- 
232 



ODDS AND ENDS 

miralty I mean, we of course could not arrange 
for entertainers of that sort, but we did manage 
to coax Mr. Maynard Keynes to come from the 
Treasury and give us a couple of enthralling lec- 
tures on War finance, and it says much for the 
interest taken in the subject that, though the lec- 
tures were given, I think, from 8:50 to 10 p.m., 
and most of us had to forego our dinners in con- 
sequence, the room was packed, and one could 
have heard a pin drop as Mr. Keynes tripped 
merrily along among his fugitive millions. 

We could have done with more of his lectures, 
but the last time I started the ball, through Sir 
Oswyn Murray, for another lecture, I think we 
as a country were rather '^hard up against it," 
and Mr. Keynes said the moment was *^not op- 
portune" for another lecture. 

Life was not all drab at the Admiralty. Tragic 
though the times were, we had to have a laugh 
now and again in order to keep going, and what 
with my internal propaganda, which drifted in 
from all sorts of sources, I think we kept as cheer- 
ful as most people could in those stressful times. 
One trifling example of a laugh was a translation 
from a French communique which stated: ^'Au 
Large Gargantua Sousmarin AUemand/' etc., 
etc., the translation being ^^A large gargantuan 
German submarine, etc., etc." For the benefit 
of those who cannot see anything funny in it, I 
mention that ^'au large" means *4n the offing," 
and Gargantua is the name of a port. 

233 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

One good laugh against me came about this way. 
The cheap 37s. 6d. Government (Works Depart- 
ment) clock on the mantelpiece of my room had 
stopped for want of winding and the Works De- 
partment, being very solicitous for the welfare of 
this type of clock, would not grant me a key all to 
my little self. So we had to wait for a winder to 
come round once a week. On this occasion he had 
passed our room by and so the voice of my clock 
was stilled and silent. As such it was useless to 
me, and so, remembering my many years in the 
Navy, where I was known as a successful borrower 
of needful stores without the formality of signing 
vouchers, etc., I waited till about 11:30 at night 
when nobody was about and I sallied forth liter- 
ally as a thief in the night and made for a room 
in which I knew there was no great pressure of 
work, substituted my silent clock for the one which 
was ticking merrily, purloined the latter, and, cov- 
ering it with my raincoat, got back to my room 
and went on with my work with a pleasant feeling 
of a good deed done. About 12 noon the next 
day Mr. Harnett, the extremely capable and oblig- 
ing man who looks after rooms and furniture, etc., 
at the Admiralty, inserted his head into my room 
and said solenmly that Mr. So-and-so wanted to 
know if I wanted my clock back and would I mind 
returning his clock? I was so taken aback that I 
quietly said, **How the devil did he know?" To 
which Harnett smiled and answered, **Your clock 

234 



ODDS AND ENDS 

is marked ' Chief Naval Censor' on the back of it,'' 
and we all roared at my being bowled out I 

Other smiles we got with the assistance of the 
First Sea Lord's messenger, a highly respectable 
official, Humber by name. Whenever a **bore" or 
a ** sticker" had to be seen by appointment, I used 
to arrange with Humber, that after ten minutes, 
or a quarter of an hour at most, he should put his 
head in at my door and say in his most seriousj 
voice, ** First Sea Lord wants you. Sir, at once, 
please," and so, with profuse apologies, farewells 
were said, and the interview terminated, and I 
fled to the First Sea Lord's Naval Assistant and 
from his room I asked by 'phone if the coast was 
clear, and so back to work! 

On some occasions if I was caught by some too 
argumentative party, I had a pre-arranged sig- 
nal with one of my clerks, who went out and 
told Humber to work the oracle, and, after a de- 
cent interval, he came and played his part to per- 
fection, and I was never found out ! If you think 
such a stratagem not quite the thing, I may add 
that I have been told that Dr. Joseph Parker, of 
the City Temple, had a bell-push neatly connected 
under the carpet beneath the table at which he sat. 
When he thought he had had enough of a visitor, 
he put his foot on the concealed bell-push, in came 
his secretary with some excuse, the visitor ac- 
cepted the hint, and all was well. 

I was frequently asked by American journalists 
and others how we managed to get through our 

235 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

work with such a small staff, and in reply to that 
I could only say that I thought it was due to cut- 
ting out as much as possible the writing of *^ min- 
utes" to anybody in or connected with the Ad- 
miralty. Personal interview, whenever possible, 
was our method of handling all questions. Nat- 
urally one had to write to people outside, but even 
then the 'phone or a taxi-cab would frequently 
save a long and possibly acrimonious correspond- 
ence leading nowhere. 

On one occasion a bad '* bloomer" had been 
made in stopping an interesting and important 
cable for the Daily Express. As soon as I came 
in in the morning and found this ** stopped" mes- 
sage, I knew it was useless to ask why it had been 
stopped because 

(a) the man who had done it was off duty, and 

(b) his reason must have been such a rotten one 
that it wasn^t worth having. 

So I jumped into a taxi and drove off to beard 
the Editor, Mr. Blumenfeldt, in his palatial office, 
— a very vivid contrast to my poor room! 

He was a bit surprised at seeing me so early, but 
when I told him what brought me and gave him 
the cable, he merely said, ^ ^ Never mind, whatever 
is amiss, you can rely on my not letting you 
down," and having read the message carefully he 
said it didn't matter anyway, and so we shook 
hands, and I bolted back to my work. 

I was extremely grateful for his attitude in this 
matter, as indeed in any other question that ever 

236 



ODDS AND ENDS 

arose over censorsMp, and I qnote it as an in- 
stance of how trouble was avoided wMcli would 
assuredly have arisen if this matter had been al- 
lowed to develop into a long and bitter wrangle 
on paper. 

The other reason why we were able to do with 
a small staff was on account of their diligence and 
reliability. I have said before that they worked 
twelve hour shifts, what is popularly called a 
*^ belly-full/' and it was always at high pressure. 
A word of recognition is here due to all of them, 
and especially to one who was with me longer than 
all, E. W. Belgrove, well known to all visitors to 
our room as ** Lightning," and we speedily came 
to realise that if he lacked some of the speed which 
his nickname seemed to imply, he had other at- 
tributes worth far more to us, in our special busi- 
ness, than mere rapidity or smartness. He pos- 
sessed sticking power in an unusual degree though 
he was far from strong, and he was never in a 
hurry to stop work. He kept our files, and card- 
indexed everything and everybody, and had an en- 
cyclopaedic memory. Any of us would have trust- 
ed him with our last farthing or our most pre- 
cious secrets (if we had had any). So here's a* 
** bouquet'' for *^ Lightning." 

I have written of the formation of the '* Pub- 
licity Department" of the Admiralty, and many 
of my Press friends protested at its virtual aboli- 
tion, though its resuscitation will, I hope, be only 
temporary. 

237 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

My strong conviction is tliat no executive Gov- 
ernment Department should have a Publicity De- 
partment. Let there he fixed up by the Press as 
a whole and the agencies some central place in 
which Government Departments may post bald 

statements such as '^H.M.S. sank to-day 

in Lat. ^ , Long. , so many men saved and 

so many lost, ' ' or * * The — th Regiment sailed from 
Bombay homeward." But a Publicity Depart- 
ment is too dangerous a weapon to my thinking, in 
the hands of any unscrupulous or indiscreet per- 
json. It can be used for all sorts of purposes 
which should be outside the purview of any one 
connected with the Government, whether Naval or 
Military Officer, Civil Servant, or Cabinet Min- 
ister. 



288 



CHAPTER XVI 



A censor's ''holidays'' 



I visit the wireless stations in Ireland — A night in Sligo — ^Inci- 
dents at Clifden and Yalentia — A trip to the Western 
Front — The Guest Chateau — In the track of the War — 
Mr. A. G. Gardiner on "capitalism" — Mount Kemmel— 
Visit to the U. S. Destroyer Base at Queenstown — With 
the First Sea Lord — Home-sick Americans — Hospitality 
of Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly — Inspection of American 
destroyers — Invitation to the American Front in France — 
An excursion into Germany — Taking the wrong turning 
and the consequences. 

I IMAGINE that the title of this chapter will sug- 
gest a return to childhood, but having once more 
returned to civil life I feel entitled to refer to 
breaks in my strenuous life during the war as 
* ^ holidays ' ' instead of ^ ^ leave. ' ' There is no trou- 
ble about remembering them for there were not so 
many of them. The head of a well-known Ameri- 
can *^Dry Goods Store" in London told a friend 
of mine that a holiday to him was merely *'a 
change of activities'' and the definition aptly ap- 
plies to my spells off duty. 

In the Spring of 1916, exactly a fortnight after 
the Dublin rebellion, I considered that it was 
about time to visit the Eadio Stations in Ireland, 

239 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

which were under my charge. Having armed my- 
self with passes of every description, therefore, in- 
cluding permits to obtain petrol from the Military 
control, I left London on a Monday evening and 
arrived at Larne the next morning where I fell 
into the kindly hands of a former captain of mine, 
Sir Alfred Paget, who, on the outbreak of war, 
had with fine partiotism slipped down from his 
rank as an Admiral and become a Commander in 
the Royal Naval Reserve in order to get command 
of a Patrol Yacht, in which he nearly found his 
way to Kingdom Come through the cold waters of 
the North Sea. Having endured about one and 
a half years of that rough work, this rugged, 
great-hearted man had been appointed Senior Na- 
val Officer at Lame. He gave me breakfast and 
lent me a fur rug and sent me off in a 40 H.P. 
Lanchester car on my journeys. 

The first place to which I had to go was the 
Radio Station at Malin Head (Co. Donegal), a 
God- forsaken hole, which I reached about 3:30 
p.m. I found the Censor there doing his work 
thoroughly well and living in most uncomfortable 
surroundings. He was a retired Captain, Ri.N., 
of about 62 years of age, acting as locum tenens 
for the proper officer, who had been away for 
three months as his health had broken down. I 
went through all his grievances as well as those of 
the Post Office officer in charge and promised re- 
dress as far as possible, and having tried to cheer 
them up a bit I left there about 5 o'clock, and got 

240 



A CENSOR'S '^HOLIDAYS" 

into Londonderry in time to have a meal, and go 
to bed after having heard the opinions of, and 
been given much advice by, as many of the inhabi- 
tants as I could get hold of between 8 and 10 
o 'clock. 

So far as I could make out, the Home Eulers 
and Unionists were at the time fairly evenly di- 
vided, which is what one might expect in that 
town, but it was fairly clear that a goodly pro- 
portion of the former were prepared to become 
Sinn Feiners if this party became sufficiently ac- 
tive and numerous. 

That finished Tuesday. 

On Wednesday morning I left at 8 o'clock and 
made for Galway, but when about three miles out 
of Sligo one of the tyres burst. We replaced this 
with the only spare tyre and ran into Sligo about 
2 o'clock, where we decided it was not good enough 
to risk going the rest of my journey without a 
spare tyre, and though Ford tyres were to be 
found anywhere, no tyres as large as I needed 
could be got in the whole of Ireland, not even in 
Dublin. 

I therefore wired to the Admiralty Garage in St. 
Martin's Lane to despatch me two spare tyres by 
the evening mail train ex London, and I resigned 
myself to spend a night in Sligo and had no cause 
to regret it. 

For one thing the constabulary officer to whom I 
had to report myself knew my name perfectly well 
and wanted to know if I was a relative of Inspec- 

241 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

tor Brownrigg of Mitchelstown fame. Having ad- 
mitted that I was at all events of the same stock, 
this at once placed matters on a comfortable foot- 
ing. After dinner, spurred by ' ' ennui, ' ^ my com- 
panion and I went to the local cinema house, or 
barn, and climbing up many stairs we arrived 
among the local knuts and enjoyed a remarkably 
fine show. There were excellent films of the 
French infantry and cavalry training, followed 
by a full-blooded American business, *' featuring'' 
a lady on horseback being pursued headlong do^vn 
a ravine by picturesque ruffians. I didn't, how- 
ever, see the pursuers follow her * * over the top. ' ' 
I suspect the merchant turning the handle had his 
dinner hour then. 

Somehow, and why I never understood, the next 
chapter of the story showed bandits taking the 
tyres off a motor (I don't think it was a Ford) 
and putting the car on the railway lines, and puff 
puff off they went in pursuit of the * ^ 20th Century 
Limited" ^^ operating" between Chicago and New 
York. They reached the train and climbed in 
through the corridor window and **did in" a gen- 
tleman sitting in the restaurant car who can 
hardly have had time to compare his country un- 
favourably with this old place, where even on our 
South Eastern lines I think one of our expresses 
could have given the slip to a motor car such as 
was shown on the screen. 

And then came the climax, the ab-so-lute limit. 
I confess that my heart was thumping with excite- 

242 



A CENSOR'S ''HOLIDAYS" 

ment. Whether that denotes senility or childish- 
ness, I don't know, but it is the plain fact, and I 
believe everybody in the hall was likewise quiv- 
ering with excitement, when on the screen was 
thrown the horrible and almost unbelievable 
words, ''Final Chapter of this story — next 
weelc!" 

That may be all right for the residents of Sligo, 
but what about two miserable devils from Lon- 
don ? I could have torn the house down, willingly. 
Even with the knowledge that "next week'' would 
bring them the denouement of this hair-raising 
story, I was surprised that the young bloods of 
Sligo could stand it. Maybe they are inured to 
cinema shocks as they were the only sort of shocks 
to which Ireland was exposed during the War! 

On Thursday the tyres arrived about 4:30 a.m. 
By 5 'clock we were on the road and making fine 
time and reached Clifden (Co. Galway) at about 
10 a.m. This being a big station with a big staff, 
we had allowed ourselves a long day there in 
which to deal with all the grievances and see how 
to remove them and to improve conditions gener- 
ally all round. So far as my staff of four Marine 
officers was concerned, they were fairly contented. 
Not having given notice of my coming visit, only 
the Senior Officer, Major Byne, was actually in 
the station, the others being outside in the village. 

Major Byne could not leave his work to come 
in to the Engineers' mess to lunch with me, so I 
went in with the rest of them and had a good meal 

243 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

of cold mutton and bread and butter and cheese. 

When I rejoined Byne, lie said, *^Well, you see 
bow we live,'' and in all innocence I agreed that 
it was pretty all right. ^*Yes, but you see the 
margarine we have to use." *'No," I said, **I 
didn't use it; I suppose they kept a bit of butter 
for me, for which I was duly grateful." **No 
fear," he said, ^Hhere hasn't been a pat of butter 
in the place for months ! ' ' Well, all I could say 
was that I could have sworn it was butter and that 
if it wasn't, there was not much to grouse about! 

Incidentally I am told by clever friends that 
this substance takes its name from being made 
with the assistance of margaric acid, the ''g" 
being pronounced hard, as in go. That may be 
so, but it will never be called anything but mar- 
garine, for how would the familiar household con- 
traction ^^marje" be got out of margaric! 

Having finished all our business, we left Clifden 
about 5 p.m. and made a fine run through to Gal- 
way, where we lay the Thursday night, after hear- 
ing all about the landing of the party from a Ger- 
man submarine in Galway Bay, a few weeks ear- 
lier. The local point of view of this incident was 
expressed in curses loud and general against all 
the hotheads who had raised the trouble, since 
they had killed the tourist trade which had been 
booming ever since the bombing raids on the East 
Coast had been instituted. 

We intended to leave Galway at 8 a.m. punc- 
tually the next morning (Friday), but Irish hotels 

244 



A CENSOR'S '^HOLIDAYS" 

do not appreciate providing early breakfast; so 
they saw to it that we got our meal in time to 
leave about 9, near enough to 8 o'clock for any 
couple of ^' black Protestants/' 

We ran through lovely country and reached Va- 
lentia about 3 o'clock, where we garaged our car, 
and crossed over to the island of that name. As 
I drove the three miles out to the Radio Station, 
I thought to myself what luck anybody had to be 
stationed in this quiet and beautiful spot ! How- 
ever, at dinner that night the conversation led me 
to suppose that the Censor there would gladly 
have changed this comparatively peaceful routine 
for mine, which was quite the reverse of peace- 
ful. We spent Friday night in the charming ho- 
tel at Valentia, and left at 8 o 'clock the next ( Sat- 
urday) morning, and having rescued our car from 
an entirely ditferent garage from that in which 
we had left it — for reasons best known to the 
driver — ^we struck the road about 10 a.m. 

This driver, Bowles, R.N.A.S., was the finest 
I have ever seen. He never smiled, but he cer- 
tainly made me smile with his explanations about 
the search for petrol, before he could garage his 
car, whereas, it being spring time, it was obvious 
that the spirit that had moved him or caused him 
to move, was not motor spirit ! 

Having finished my inspection of Radio Sta- 
tions, I felt justified in shaping my return journey 
through Killarney, where we lunched on the Sat- 
urday and then ran on to Killaloe, where we spent 

245 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

the night of Saturday. Here we had an interest- 
ing talk with one of the town councillors on the 
Home Rule question and the Revolution, etc. He 
was, of course, a Home Ruler for reasons which 
to him were sufficient and ample. The British 
governed Ireland for profit, if not in money, then 
in patronage, i.e., they kept all the best Govern- 
ment positions for English folks. Having spent 
most of my life abroad this was news to me, so I 
did not argue about it, merely remarking that in 
my few visits to this wonderful island I had never 
met a man, woman, or child, official or otherwise, 
who didn't speak with an accent which labelled 
them ** Irish'' as clear **as a barrel of pork 
marked * Limerick' "! 

We spent a very pleasant hour high up on the 
bank of the lovely river hearing all about the 
grievances of one of the most beautiful and, to 
judge by appearances, one of the most prosperous 
parts of the British Isles. 

We left Killaloe on the Sunday morning at 5 :30 
a.m., the hotel manager having been as good as 
his word to feed us early. Bless him for an up- 
right man, when I suppose he would have pre- 
ferred to be a recumbent one in a warm bed. So 
we left with eggs and bacon and much knowledge 
inside us and had been running along fine for 
about two or three miles, the car just getting 
warmed up to her work, when, whether because it 
was Sunday or no, and it was wrong to be travel- 
ling, I know not, but we met a herd of cattle on 

246 



A CENSOR'S ^'HOLIDAYS" 

a narrow road. We got past all but one, a heifer, 
a maddening heifer, which I hoped might be 
turned into beef, roast beef, instantly. But that 
instantly lasted for half an hour, for she turned 
and ambled along in front of us for five weary 
miles ! Not a gate was open, not a lane turned off 
our road for more than five miles, till at last a 
lane mercifully joined our road and the heifer 
disappeared out of sight and with our curses ring- 
ing in its ears 1 

From there we ran on without a stop into Dub- 
lin, having done our journey of 105 miles in three 
hours and twenty-four minutes, a really magnifi- 
cent run. Having got a permit from the military 
to embark the car, and made my peace with a very 
kind Eailway Transport Officer, we went out to 
Kingstown and spent a lazy Sunday afternoon 
waiting for the evening Holyhead boat, and we 
reached London the next (Monday) morning at 
7 o'clock, having had an interesting and instruc- 
tive tour, and travelled 924 miles in the car. 

During the whole of this journey which I had 
done in plain clothes, though cautioned that it was 
wiser to wear uniform, I had never met with any- 
thing but courtesy, even though the country had 
just had a rebellion, and we had not hurt a living 
thing, not even a chicken, and so here's a 
* ^bouquet" for our driver, Bowles. 

All I can say to readers, if I still have any, is 
this: Ireland cannot be beaten for beauty and 
variety of scenery in the month of May, and noth- 

247 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

ing could be more enjoyable than such a tour as 
I had, provided of course that proper time can be 
given to it. My tour was a bit too strenuous, as 
the short rests were occupied in making out a re- 
port on each station visited. 

My next Va-ca-tion was a four aM a half 
days' trip to the Western Front in company with 
Admiral Leveson in September, 1917. Those 
"Western Front tours run by the Army are pretty 
well known, and I do not propose to dwell on this 
one. 

One or two things stick in my memory. The 
first thing was my admiration for the way in which 
a young military officer on board the cross-Chan- 
nel packet tackled everybody and compelled them 
to put on life belts. He did it quite gently, and 
his persuasiveness was irresistible — rather like a 
dentist who coaxes you to ' ' open widely, please. ' ' 
You know you Ve got to do it to get the job done, 
and there's an end to it. I was rather shocked, 
however, to find two Admirals among the few re- 
calcitrant passengers who declined to put on life 
belts! Being an Admiral doesn't make one swim 
any better than a Subaltern, rather worse, prob- 
ably ! And it was a very bad example to the vast 
crowd of military officers returning from leave. 

Personally, being an amenable sort of cuss, I 
put my belt on, but on each subsequent journey I 
took refuge with the Captain on the Bridge and so 
was immune from the belt habit, which was foolish 
of me, no doubt, but more comfortable! 

248 



A CENSOR'S ^'HOLIDAYS" 

The order and comfort at the Guest Chateau at 
Francourt struck us both. The way our official 
host, Captain Roberts, handled his large and 
queerly asserted bunch of guests was beyond 
praise. As an early start had to be made in the 
morning, i^ was early to bed, of which I was very 
glad, as I was now disguised as a soldier in khaki 
and the queer clothes and gaiters and belt, etc., 
irked me. Long before the trip was over, I was 
glad I was in khaki and thoroughly appreciated 
the comfort and sense of the kit. 

"We surrendered ourselves unreservedly into the 
hands of the good fellows who were on the staff of 
^^ Visitors' Chateau, '^ as cicerones to bores like 
our two selves. I hope that by making it perfectly 
clear that we were there to see what these gen- 
tlemen were prepared to show us, and that we had 
no suggestions or criticisms to make, we smoothed 
their task for them. Certainly nothing could have 
been more kind and considerate than the way in 
which these officers handled us, and I think we saw 
an enormous amount in the time. 

On the first day we went to the Butte de War- 
lencourt, passing through hundreds of thousands 
of men camped in the back areas. We inspected 
the ruins of Grandville and a score of other places 
where every vestige of human habitation had dis- 
appeared. At one place, Grandcourt, on a river, 
we found thousands and thousands of Mills bombs 
in boxes. Admiral Leveson, having been a gun- 
nery expert and fancying that he knew a bit about 

249 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

explosives, wanted to see if they would go off and 
also what sort of an explosion they made. Cap- 
tain Shiach, who was our pilot that day, took out 
the pin of one and threw it as far as he could — I 
suppose 20-30 yards — and sure enough it went off 
all right ! Seeing this, I expressed a lively wish 
to possess a couple of these, but my expert friend 
forbade me. ^*Not while you and I travel to- 
gether. ' ' 

We subsequently spent four days more together 
without any explosions taking place. I managed 
to secure two Mills bombs which I have since had 
emptied by experts and added to my collection of 
** souvenirs." ' 

The first night we spent at Albert, and dined 
with Sir Julian Byng and his staff. They took 
endless trouble to explain to us their Intelligence 
and mapping system and everything we could 
possibly want to know. It is impossible to thank 
him and them sufficiently. I only hope they real- 
ised that we felt much more than we said when 
we expressed our gratitude to them the next day 
on leaving. I am glad to have slept under the 
shadow of the cathedral at Albert while the Vir- 
gin was still clinging precariously to the tower — 
a strange sight which I shall never forget. 

The next morning, after breakfast with the Gen- 
eral, we drove to Bapaume and then to Arras, and 
spent the day with the Naval Division, who were 
*4n," just north of Arras. It was an inspiring 
sight seeing the White Ensign and the Naval rou- 

250 



A CENSOR'S "HOLIDAYS" 

tine just as if it were Portsmouth Naval Bar- 
racks. It was also refreshing to see the keenness 
and esprit do corps of all hands from General Lau- 
rie, right down through all ranks. Here we were 
permitted to go to a forward observation post 
commonly known as *^ George's 0. Pip," because 
His Majesty had recently visited it. We fired six- 
inch guns at the Boches, and altogether had an in- 
structive and extraordinarily interesting day and 
got back to the Guest Chateau about 11 :30 p.m. 

The third day we made straight for Cassel, 
where we were shown all the maps and positions 
by General Plumer's staff. Here again the pa- 
tience and kindness of these staff officers was very 
much appreciated. From there we went up to 
Messines and the Vimy Eidge and lunched in one 
of the Officers ' Clubs just at the back of the Front, 
so to speak. The lunch is memorable on account 
of a somewhat heated argument which arose be- 
tween Mr. A. G. Gardiner, the well-known editor 
of the Daily News, and the rest of the party on a 
subject which he had made his own, namely, the 
conscription of capital. Having none of the latter, 
I entered into the argument with zest and amuse- 
ment. Presently Mr. Gardiner said that nobody 
had any right to work for himself, that he should 
be working for the State, and everything should 
belong to the State for the good of all. ^^News- 
papers also!" I asked. **0h, no, not newspa- 
pers," was Mr. Gardiner's reply. Well, it was 
a hot day anyhow ! 

251 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

We started on our journey again and sat for 
two hours in the sun on the top of Mount Kem- 
mel, watching the ^^ Sausages," the ^^ Archies," 
and all the wonders of the fighting machines which 
were flung in to the attack on the very next day. 
"Wonderful ! Magnificent ! That was our feeling, 
and we were proud indeed to have been so fortu- 
nate as to have had this glimpse of the actualities 
of war. 

The next morning we had to return to Boulogne 
and London, and work ! Before we left the Guest 
Chateau more tourists had arrived, a hefty party 
of Trade Union Leaders, from whom we heard 
that there had been a pretty serious air raid in^ 
London. We asked one of these gentlemen if they 
had brought an evening paper with them, and one 
of them produced The Star. On seeing this I re- 
marked that it would gladden the heart of the 
editor of the Daily News (who was in the next 
room) to know that this gentleman indulged in 
The Star. *' Editor of t' Daily News, didst tha 

say?" *^ Where is the 1 He's one of them 

Cocoa . ' ' After which I thought it about time 

to get into our car, so I bade my friend a hearty 
good-bye and fled from the prospects of bloodshed. 

On getting back to London we found that we had 
missed a pretty bad raid. It was the occasion 
when a bomb was dropped in the Green Park out- 
side the Ritz Hotel. This was one of the only two 
air raids I missed. What a wonderfxQ four and 

252 



A CENSOR'S "HOLIDAYS" 

half days, and well described as a * * Change of Ac- 
tivities 'M 

When the events of March, 1918, took place and 
we at home watched the retreat of our army with 
anxious hearts, I felt it as almost a personal loss 
when, one by one, all the places which we had vis- 
ited under the care of our wonderful army were 
wrested from them. I thought of the elaborate 
organisation we had seen and hated to think of it 
all passing into the possession of the Boche. 

My next Vay-cay-tion was not even sup- 
posed to be a holiday, in any sense of the word, 
nor indeed was it, though it was as instructive 
and enjoyable as the two breaks in office work 
which I have already described. 

The First Sea Lord had for long been wanting 
to visit the American Destroyer Base at Queens- 
town, and after many delays it was eventually ar- 
ranged during May, 1918. We left London on a 
Friday night, the party consisting of the First 
Sea Lord, his Naval Assistant, Captain John 
Marriott, myself, and Lieutenants Engholm and 
Neal, who were my cinematographer and photog- 
rapher, and of course the First Sea Lord's price- 
less personal messenger, Humber. 

We reached Queenstown without trouble at 
noon on Saturday. Although I had been thirty- 
five years in the Navy, I had never met the Com- 
mander-in-Chief at Queenstown, Admiral Sir 
Lewis Bayly, though of course I had heard a good 
deal about him. However, I was told by his Chief 

253 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

of Staff, Commodore Martin Leake, D.S.O., that 
it was the AdmiraPs wish that I should stay at 
Admiralty House, so there I went with the First 
Sea Lord and Captain Marriott, and we sat down 
to lunch, which, so far as food was concerned, was 
a revelation to ns after coming from the closely 
rationed city of London. 

The establishment was a teetotal one and had 
been so all through the war. Nothing could have 
exceeded the kindness of Sir Lewis Bayly, and his 
niece, Miss Voysey, who was known as the * ^ Queen 
of Queenstown, ' ' and they soon made me feel at 
home. 

I had heard from various American naval offi- 
cers something of the attitude of Sir Lewis to- 
wards them, and of the hospitality of Admiralty 
House, but one had to see it and feel it to appre- 
ciate what this *^home" atmosphere must have 
meant to these young American officers who were 
engaged on the common task of beating the Hun. 
It is notorious that Americans are vastly more 
homesick than British officers, presumably be- 
cause they leave home much older than we do, but 
whatever the cause, they do get homesick to an 
extent which is almost inexplicable to us. The 
Commander-in-Chief and Miss Voysey had made 
it their business to understand it, to sympathise 
with it, to combat it, and in so far as lay in their 
power to alleviate it, and to make them feel that 
they had a ^'home'' on the hill at Queenstown, 
overlooking the flotillas. 

254 



A CENSOR'S ''HOLIDAYS'* 

The grounds consisted of two gardens, one of 
which contained lawn tennis courts and was en- 
tirely given up to the American officers. The 
Commander-in-Chief saw every Commanding Of- 
ficer personally on his return from sea and before 
going out again on patrol, and gave him what is 
more to men than words can express, namely sym- 
pathy. 

The life of the American seaman has been fully 
described by many able writers, yet it may bear 
repeating that their routine was five days out on 
patrol and three days in harbour, and in the At- 
lantic, ojff the south-west coast of Ireland, that 
can by no stretch of imagination be called a rest 
cure. It says volumes for the build of their boats, 
for the work of their mother ship Melville^ and 
for the determination of their officers and men, 
that the three days in harbour was always suffi- 
cient to tune the boats up for their next turn of 
duty of five days on patrol. 

I had had some correspondence with the Com- 
mander-in-Chief from time to time concerning 
writers whom I had sent over to him. He was not 
enamoured of publicity and his letters to me were 
not three-volume novels. They were on the crisp 
side. He hated publicity and did not love the 
man who was slowly bombing him out of that 
hatred. So I felt a bit curious to see what would 
come of this visit. 

On the Saturday afternoon we went up to the 
baseball field and saw a good ''balP* game, and 

255 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

had the niceties of the game and its technicalities 
explained to us by Captain Pringle of the Mel- 
ville. It was a lovely afternoon and as we sat 
and baked in the snn it was hard to realise that 
twenty-four hours before we had been at work in 
the stuffy old Admiralty, and we told our Ameri- 
can friends how lucky they were to live and work 
under a blue sky with a glorious sun to warm and 
dry them. That produced a genuine outburst from 
Pringle, who said neither he nor anybody else in 
Queenstown had seen the sun since the previous 
September, and it was a positive fact that this 
was the very first time for nine . months that 
anybody had been able to sit out of doors without 
an overcoat on. There must have been a mascot 
in the party, and I am inclined to think I was it ! 
The Commander-in-Chief had twelve American 
officers to dinner that night, and after dinner we 
went to the Sailors' Club and saw their first-class 
entertainment. I was specially interested in this, 
as I had provided all their films for them. It was 
exhilarating to hear the crowd of about 2,500 
shouting *^Over There,'' to the accompaniment of 
their excellent band and with the words thrown on 
the screen so that we could also join in the chorus. 
On the Sunday morning Admiral Sir Eosslyn 
Wemyss inspected the Melville and some of the 
U. S. destroyers. Their cleanliness was very re- 
markable. I had found the same thing on board 
Admiral Eodman's ^^6th Battle Squadron" in the 
Grand Fleet when I went to Scapa. They un- 

256 



A CENSOR'S ^'HOLIDAYS" 

doubt edly believe that cleanliness is next to godli- 
ness and that straight shooting and general effi- 
ciency go hand in hand with scrupulous cleanli- 
ness, which is, after all, only a form of discipline. 

In the sick bay on board the Melville were some 
terribly burnt men from the U. S. S. destroyer 
Manly, This vessel, from some more or less un- 
explained cause, had had an explosion on board 
her of 35 depth-charges, which had blown the after 
part of her clean away; and the poor charred and 
suffering men were the gallant remnants of her 
crew, 35 men having disappeared. I talked with 
one of them who was just able to speak, and I re- 
member saying that he must make up his mind to 
get well so as to get back home across the Atlantic. 
*^ That's all right,'' he managed to say, *^I'm not 
going to leave the boys, ' ' which, I think, admirably 
expressed the spirit of all of them. They intended 
to see it out. 

In the afternoon we went across the harbour to 
see the large seaplane stations under construction 
and met several of their flying officers and men — 
all modest and quiet and getting on with their 
hiisiness and very anxious to be able to help the 
patrols from the air. 

On Sunday night there was another dinner to 
many more U. S. destroyer captains and much 
* * shop ' ' talk. On Monday morning we paid a visit 
to Haulbowline Dockyard, where we went over the 
Manly and also Lieutenant Auten's ^'Q'' Boat, 
then fitting out. Then we returned to luncheon 

257 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

and caught the train out at 3:30, and next (Tues- 
day) morning saw us back at work at the Ad- 
miralty. It was a full forty-eight hours and I 
"believe it did good all round. 

So far as I was concerned it had a curious se- 
quel. Owing to the generosity of the captain of 
the Melville, I was the happy possessor of a long 
stick of white bread, also some sugar and cheese. 
As I dared not trust them to any outside agency, 
I telegraphed to my wife to come and meet me at 
Savile Eow. She, of course, thought I had some- 
thing the matter with me, that I had lost my job 
— anything in fact but the real cause. So when 
she appeared and I triumphantly produced my 
bread and cheese and sugar, my gifts were rather 
scornfully received. ^^Oh! is that why you sent 
for mef'V However, after having narrowly es- 
caped causing a riot in Paddington Station, when 
she dropped the bread out of its fragile paper 
wrappings, she was received with enthusiasm by 
my children, who had not seen white bread or 
cheese for months ! 

Towards the latter end of November, 1918, I 
had a very pleasant surprise in the shape of a 
visit from an official from the American Embassy, 
who told me that their Headquarters in Paris had 
instructions to arrange a tour for me to visit the 
American Front in France, and when would it be 
convenient? I was delighted at the prospect and 
perhaps still more so at the kind thought which 
had prompted the offer. I fancy I can trace it 

258 



A CENSOR'S "HOLIDAYS" 

back to my kind friend, the late Ambassador, Dr. 
Walter Hines Page. 

There was no time to lose, so I made all my 
arrangements to get away as early as possible, 
and on the 6th of December I made my way to 
Dover, spent the night under the wing of Bear Ad- 
miral the Honourable Algernon Boyle, and was 
lucky enough to cross the next morning (Decem- 
ber 7), in a patrol boat. I reached Paris about 
5 o'clock and found two very nice young Ameri- 
can military officers, Lieutenant Georgeson and 
another, awaiting me, and I was taken charge of 
and deposited in the Chatham Hotel. 

Having had late tea, and my cicerones having 
other fish to fry, they asked me if I would care to 
go to any play or ^ ^ show ' ' that night, as I was go- 
ing to be alone. It struck me as a good notion and 
a ticket was got for some theatre whose name I 
have forgotten, and in the morning I naturally 
paid the hall porter for my stall. Some nights 
after, when discussing with my friends the ex- 
pense of things in Paris, I mentioned that I 
thought the price of a stall was about enough. 
They both sat up and said, **Why we paid for 
that stall. You don't mean to say you paid 
again r' I replied that of course I had paid for 
my theatre ticket and couldn't think of any one 
else doing so for me. Well, they said, they would 
get the money refunded when we got back to 
Paris. But they didn't. The hall porter was a 
Napoleon of Finance. He merely stated that he 

259 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

had got two stalls and wlien asked what he had 
done with the second one, he shrugged his shoul- 
ders and remarked, ** Je m'en f e,'' which put 

an end to the pleasant little chat. Net profit to 
hall porter — 17.50 francs. 

"We left Paris in a new eight-cylinder Cadillac 
at about 10 o^clock on Sunday, December 8, and 
about two miles from the hotel, i.e., in some sort 
of outskirt of the town, we stopped and bought a 
yard of bread and a bottle of Graves, the latter 
for 3.50 francs — no profiteering there — and off we 
went with our provisions for the day. 

We visited Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry, 
where the U. S. troops had had their first fighting. 
What struck me was the enormous difference be- 
tween these places and those on our own front 
which I had visited fifteen months before — ^Ba- 
paume, Peronne and the rest. These places were 
hardly shot about at all, this showing that, com- 
paratively speaking, the fighting had been of brief 
duration. We took our lunch, share and share 
alike, in blazing sunshine on the road, having 
stopped on a summit overlooking a great valley. 

One of my officer guides asked the driver what 
his name was. *^Bahb'' (Bob) was the reply, and 
then he corrected himself quickly, realising his 
slip, and gave his surname. But the incident 
served to show me how near the surface was the 
civilian inside the khaki coat. He was a first-class 
driver and I must say he was tried out pretty far 
during the week in which I travelled with him. 

260 



A CENSOR'S '^HOLIDAYS" 

In the afternoon we visited Rheims, a true ob- 
ject lesson of the march of civilisation (?) as un- 
derstood in the year of our Lord 1918. It was a 
heart-breaking picture. The French people were 
just being re-admitted to the town, and groups of 
them, sightseers like ourselves, were sadly making 
a tour of their magnificent cathedral, now only a 
splendid ruin, though the mass of the structure 
stands there still. 

From there we went on to Chalons-sur-Mame, 
where we went to the * * Gas ' ' station to refill our 
petrol tank. This is the only instance of which I 
know where an American uses a shorter word than 
we do for the same thing, and the only reason I 
can suggest is that the ^^ juice'* we use in cars is 
not * ^ gas, ' ' but petrol. Anyway I am no chemist. 

Thence we drove to Bar-le-Duc, where we dined 
at **La Popotte,'' a sort of officers' club or dining- 
room, primitive, but good and very cheap, and so 
on again to the Guest House at Neufchateau, 
which we reached at 10 p. m. 

The driver had had an awful *^ doing" for the 
last hour — a bad road, bad lights, and I should 
say he was pretty nearly dead beat. But he stuck 
on, and after one or two narrow squeaks brought 
us **to the haven where we would be" all safe 
and sound. I suspect that ^^Bahb" slept well. I 
know I did. 

The following morning, Monday, December ^^ 
we left at about 9:30 and took the route Toul, 
Pont-a-Mousson, Arnaville, Metz, Thionville and 

261 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

Luxembourg, arriving at this last place at about 
4 :30. That is to say we bad bad an easy day's run. 
All tbe way up we bad been passing French regi- 
ments making their way to the Frpnt to go into 
Germany as one of the armies of occupation. I 
was very much struck by the size of the men. 
They were uniformly fine, big, well set-up men, 
looking, I suppose, older than they really were and 
I dare say f eebng sad that, now the war was over, 
they were marching away from home instead of 
towards it. At Metz we made a halt and examined 
the place fairly carefully. "We saw all the shops 
which had been smashed up the previous day by 
students (so it was said) because the owners of 
the shops had not decorated their houses on the 
occasion of the visit of M. Poincare and Clemen- 
ceau and Generals Foch, Haig, and Pershing. 

Also we noted and bought picture postcards of 
the statue of the Kaiser in a niche on the right- 
hand side of the main entrance to Metz cathedral, 
with a label hanging round his neck large enough 
for us to read from the ground, ^^sic transit gloria 
mundi/' and round his clasped hands a pair of 
handcuffs — a strange sight ! 

We found the town of Luxembourg rather a 
pleasant little place, and we spent the night at the 
Hotel de la Grand Brasserie, where prices were 
moderate and there were no very apparent signs 
of war. Meat and sugar were served without be- 
ing asked for, and the hotel itself was as clean as 
a new pin. 

262 



A CENSOR'S ^'HOLIDAYS" 

On Tuesday, December 10, we left Luxem- 
bourg, and steering north-east through dense for- 
est and fog we made for the frontier at Echter- 
nach, where we crossed over the little bridge into 
Germany in company with an American six-inch 
gun. It was interesting this day to watch large 
numbers of the American Army going up to join 
the Army of Occupation, fine young fellows full 
of the spirit of the great adventure. 

We ran a considerable way along the German 
frontier, passing through Bottendorf, Wallendorf, 
Diekierch and then back into Luxembourg and 
steered south-west to Alon, south to Longwy, 
through all the iron and steel works country, Lon- 
guyon, and so south to Etain and Fresnes. 

Although it rained heavily during the after- 
noon, we went very completely over the St. Mihiel 
ground. Here there was very clear evidence of 
the severity of the shelling of roads and cross 
roads; indeed, it was difficult to negotiate them 
even at that interval of time after the fighting, ex- 
actly three months. All day long we passed large 
parties of American road repair parties, mostly 
black troops, and I could not help feeling sorry for 
them, working away in deep mud, bitter cold, 
blinding rain, and yet, so far as one could judge, 
they were all cheerful enough and always anxious 
and ready to salute a white American officer. In- 
deed in this they seamed to take a special pride 
and pleasure. 

After seeing the St. Mihiel area, we steered 
263 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

south-east to Vigneulles and so to Toul and back 
to the Guest House at Neufchateau. Here we lay 
for the night and we ran into a party of American 
newspaper men, whom I had met in the course of 
my business in London, and had a cheery and 
pleasant evening of it. 

Somewhere in the battlefields, we had during, 
the day picked up four Boche helmets which we 
were going to divide amongst us, and we brought 
them back in triumph to the Guest House, but in 
the rush of the morning, aided perhaps by some 
outside agency, the helmets were forgotten I Per- 
haps it was as well, as our motto was ** Travel 
light/' 

On "Wednesday, December 11, we started to re- 
trace our steps and very unfortunately we had 
heavy rain all day. We reached Verdun at 2 p.m. 
and went over as much of its ground as we could 
in the time that Lieutenant Georgeson could grant 
us, and very wonderful and impressive it was. 
The whole place from the point on which we final- 
ly stood. Fort Thionville, was one vast graveyard. 
The rain prevented my being able to see the lie of 
the terrain more than a mile and a half off, but the 
severity of the fighting and its terrible cost could 
be appreciated when one saw the nearest point to 
the Fort to which the Boches had been able to ap- 
proach in many and repeated attacks. There are 
350,000 Germans and 300,000 French buried in 
Verdun and on the slopes which surround and de- 
fend the wonderful city. I am deeply grateful to 

264 



A CENSOR'S "HOLIDAYS" 

the American Military Forces for the opportunity 
they gave me of seeing this solemn and awe-in- 
spiring sight. 

We ran back into Paris about 10 p.m. and 
stayed again at the Hotel Chatham, "where I had a 
job to deharbouiller myself of the mud in which 
T was encased. I was indeed glad to have been in 
khaki. 

We left Paris again the next jnorning, Thurs- 
day, December 12, and made for Tours, where I 
was to report to the U. S. General in charge of 
their Supply Base. All through the trip we had 
been travelling light and never took more than a 
yard of bread with us, and not always that, trust- 
ing to buy on the road. On this occasion, think- 
ing that we were going to get into Tours in time 
for lunch, Lieutenant Georgeson and I were enjoy- 
ing a luncheon in advance and in our imagination, 
when we had a slight mishap which, as we said, 
served us right and put the lunch off for good 
and all for that day. 

We were running along the road on the top of 
the banks of the Loire and making as good speed 
as complete absence of traffic combined with the 
enormous potholes in the road would allow, when, 
like the young lady in the cinema, we ^^took the 
wrong turning, '^ that is to say, we failed to 
branch off away from the embankment where the 
road bifurcated about four miles out of Tours. 
We continued on the embankment road naturally 
enough as there was nothing to suggest our going 

265 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

off it, and we had come some forty miles along 
it. This was what led to our undoing and as I 
said put lunch out of the question. 

No sooner had we noticed (we were moving at 
forty miles an hour) that there was only just width 
enough for the wheels of our car than we saw one 
of those enormous French wine carts about sev- 
enty to eighty yards ahead of us, and it was quite 
clear that neither of us could turn or pass one 
another. The next thing that happened took place 
in about ten seconds. We jammed our brakes on 
and tried to pull to one side ; we climbed the curb, 
one wheel went over the edge of the embankment, 
the radiator kindly removed some inch-thick iron 
railings, and the huge shaft of the wine cart came 
between Lieutenant Georgeson and myself and 
narrowly escaped ^* spitting'' him. It pierced the 
back of our car, the old French mare lay down on 
the ground and her driver burst into a queer mix- 
ture of tears and curses. * * Tableau- vivant, there 's 
a picture for you, ' ' as the late R. G. Knowles used 
to say ! In the twinkling of an eye the usual crowd 
appeared from nowhere, and after looking at us 
all as we climbed out of our car and after examin- 
ing the old man and his mare, they came to the 
conclusion that there was no great harm done, the 
old man and the mare being absolutely uninjurecj, 
and we were as merry as grigs (only resenting our 
lost lunch) while the whole party started to help 
us out of our mess. 

They first had to coax the old man to cease 
266 



A CENSOR'S "HOLIDAYS" 

crying out '^Ohl La pauvre bete. Oh! la pauvre 
bete, Oh I La I La ! Oh I La I La I ' ' and, after point- 
ing out to him that neither he nor the mare were 
damaged, they induced him to unharness and get 
the animal on to her feet, and they soon wheeled 
the wine cart back clear of us. We then dragged 
our car back into the straight and narrow path, 
which in this case had nearly led ns to destruc- 
tion, and in half an hour or so we were able to ^*go 
astern^' with the car, amidst the plaudits of the 
crowd (the plaudits were largely due to a wise 
distribution of largesse among those who had so 
kindly and willingly helped us) and presently we 
ran into Tours, after having exchanged one or two 
compliments on the folly of ** counting our chick- 
ens before they were hatched.'' 

We got fixed up at the Officers' Y. M. C. A. Hos- 
tel somewhere in the square by the station, and 
then procured some food in the station restaurant, 
though it was already 3 :30. 

Later in the day we called on the General in 
charge of the Supply Headquarters. He very 
courteously showed me the whole system of supply 
from the French seaboard right up to the U. S. 
fighting line in the Argonne, and very interest- 
ing it was. ♦ 

I was then taken over a huge salvage plant in 
which the United States employed 5,000 women 
at 9 francs 50 per day, so the good ladies of Tours 
were doing fairly well! Here I saw clothes of 
every description being cleaned and remade, also 

267 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

gum boots and all sorts of ^'hiking" shoes. That 
is one of the differences between the English lan- 
guage and the variety used in the States, viz., a 
shoe on the other side of the Atlantic means any 
kind of a boot except half "Wellingtons or boots 
that go right up to the knee like jack-boots. 

This salvage plant was in charge of a very 
smart officer who had, I gathered, been in the boot 
industry before the War. There was no doubt that 
he had built and equipped this fine plant in an in- 
credibly short space of time and it was already 
paying its way to the tune of about £90,000 per 
month net profit. I give his figures of course be- 
cause I believe them. 

I am not quite clear that I rounded off my suc- 
cess with this gentleman by asking him if the U. S. 
Army was still wedded to the boot which has a 
billiard ball in the toe of it? He looked at me as 
though he would convey the impression that he 
didn't really understand what I was after, but I 
made it quite clear and so he admitted that they 
had bidden good-bye to that particular freak type 
of shoe. That's one good thing that has come to 
America out of the War ! As a matter of fact, you 
couldn't tell their military boot from ours, though 
I understand there is some trifling technical differ- 
ence. 

We finished up the evening at the biggest local 
hotel and saw life such as it was in Tours in war 
time and retired to the very comfortable spotless- 

268 



A CENSOR'S ''HOLIDAYS" 

ly clean Y. M. C. A. Hostel in good time, ready 
for another early start. 

On Friday morning we left Tours betimes and 
made for Eomorantin, the Headquarters of the 
U. S. ATmy Aviation Service. We spent a most 
interesting period seeing their enormous accumu- 
lation of machines all ready to fly away, and I 
must say my heart bled for officers and pilots, as 
well as ground officers, who had just got the out- 
put as well as the machines really satisfactory, 
and then — Armistice, and nothing doing! I was 
informed that just at the end of the fighting they 
were sending away about 48 machines per day, 
flying them away (or taxi-ing them as they would 
say) to their flighting front. No wonder there was 
a general air of despondency about all those splen- 
did young fellows. The heart had gone out of 
their work. They had just reached the top of their 
effort. Well, I sympathised with them with all 
my heart and that was all I could do. 

From the Aviation Depot we went on to Gevres, 
about 20 miles north of Tours, the actual Q.M.C.'s 
Supply Depot for the whole U. S. Army, a 
wonderful place, seven miles long by about two 
wide. This Depot was started and completed by 
Colonel Kelly, an American Cavalry Officer of a 
fine, quiet, rugged type, a native of Texas, I be- 
lieve. I had the privilege of spending some three 
hours with him, when, with the aid of maps and 
plans and a motor car, he showed me with reason- 
able pride the result of his energy and organising 

269 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

power. No wonder he loved it and was proud of 
it. Sad to say he had lost his only son, who was in 
Ms own cavalry regiment, two days before the 
Armistice was signed. 

We bade good-bye to Colonel Kelly about 4 
p.m., and, after a fast but uneventful run, got back 
to the Hotel Chatham, Paris, at about 10 p.m. 
The next morning I had to return to Boulogne 
and England, and thus to my great regret had 
to miss seeing President Wilson's entry into 
Paris, which took place an hour or so after I had 
left. This would finally have rounded off a most 
wonderful trip in charge of the American Army, a 
trip which I shall always remember and for which 
no words can adequately express my gratitude; 
and I hope that the wheel of fortune may in its 
turning bring Lieutenant Georgeson into my life 
again, as he was a man with red corpuscles in his 
blood, an ideal travelling companion, an excellent 
■bowman, who was proud of what he had to show 
and relate, but had not a shadow of swagger or 
buoL 



270 



CHAPTEE XVn 

LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

The German wireless announcing the Kaiser's abdication — 
The Nauen messages as reflections of Germany's men- 
tality — Suspense while waiting for the signing of the 
Armistice terms — Scenes in Whitehall when the news 
became public — "Bouquets" for the Chief Naval Censor — ' 
I become a free man once more. 

The final stages of the Great War were quite as 
exciting and dramatic as the opening scenes, and 
even a people surfeited with emotions of every de- 
scription during the previous four years and three 
months could not avoid being thrilled as the dra- 
matic news heralding the end of the bloody busi- 
ness came in by wireless. 

Following closely on the knowledge that there 
was mutiny in the High Sea Fleet, the news that 
the Kaiser had abdicated, which reached us at 
about four p.m. on Saturday, November 9, went a 
long way to justify those of us who had always 
maintained that when the time came the German 
nation would crack and engulf the whole machin- 
ery of the Government. Yet, truth to tell, it was 
hard to believe. Here is the wireless message an- 
nouncing the great news : 

The German Imperial Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, has 
issued the following decree: 

271 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

The Kaiser and King has decided to renounce the Throne. 

The Imperial Chancellor will remain in office until the 
questions connected with the abdication of the Kaiser, the 
renouncing by the Crown Prince of the Throne of the German 
Empire and of Prussia, and the setting up of a Regency have 
been settled. For the Regency he intends to appoint Deputy 
Ebert as Imperial Chancellor, and he proposes that a Bill 
shall be brought in for the establishment of a law providing 
for the immediate promulgation of general suffrage, and for 
a constitutional German National Assembly, which will settle 
finally the future form of government of the German nation 
and of those people which might be desirous of coming within 
the Empire. 

Berlin, November 9, 1918. 

The Imperial Chancellor, 
^ Prince Max, of Baden. 

I had always anticipated that, if things went 
really badly, so that the end could be reckoned 
upon with comparative certainty, the Kaiser 
would have got himself up into the firing line 
somehow, somewhere, and would have sought 
death as others in his position had done in the 
past; that he would never endure the debacle of 
a dethronement and of a life in which he would be 
^'conspue'-d'' by all his fat-necked German sub- 
jects. 

Moreover, I argued that if he really had fled, the 
whole country would go to pieces, and I thought 
that, apart from the satisfaction of seeing this 
sword-rattler humbled at last, it might be better to 
have him to treat with than some unknown son of 
Demos. In fact, Eussia was rather vividly before 
my mind as a dreadful example. 

272 



LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

gucli a mixture of lies and truth had been 
pumped out from Nauen (the German high-power 
wireless station) from the very commencement of 
the war that it was a little hard to make up one 's 
mind to believe this news. 

The Nauen "Wireless was, as a rule, not a bad 
barometer, showing whether things were going 
well or ill with the Boches. For instance, about 
the end of August, 1914, they had put out a long, 
windy message, supposed to cheer the Boches 
scattered over the face of the globe, that all the 
talk of the British sending troops to the assistance 
of their foolish Allies, the French, was mere rub- 
bish, the facts being the British ships were pinned 
into the East Coast ports through fear of the Ger- 
man submarines which were controlling the North 
Sea and Channel. And on the very day on which 
they put out this message I got from the "War Of- 
fice the number of men landed in France — 86,000 
— with many of whom the Boches had been fight- 
ing, and whom they had the best reasons for re- 
membering, for had they not caused the first 
breakdown of their ** according to plan" war? 

So during the war they continued with their 
wireless, and it got to be quite well known among 
us that 

1. If things were going well with the Boches 
their wireless told the actual truth without ex- 
aggeration. 

2. Whereas, if things were going amiss with 
them, and they were ** getting it in the neck," the 

273 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

wireless was an extraordinary jumble of truth 
and lies, the latter being well np to 40 per cent, 
of the whole mixture, as witness their first Jut- 
land message. 

While waiting for the Germans to sign the arm- 
istice existence again became hectic at that end of 
the Admiralty — the Old Buildings — in which we 
who were specially interested in radio-telegraphy 
lived and moved and had our being. 

It was expected, and the Prime Minister cer- 
tainly hoped, that he would be able to announce 
the signing of the armistice at the Lord Mayor ^s 
banquet on November 9. I reverted to my routine 
of the first days of the War by taking my meals in 
my office and keeping the old bad hours, viz. eight 
a.m. through the day to 1:30 to 2 a.m. I had a 
motor-cycle messenger in the quadrangle that 
night waiting to fly off to the First Lord's house 
and to the Prime Minister. So I waited nearly all 
through the time during which the Lord Mayor's, 
banquet lasted, and if I was wild with excitement, 
what must have been the feelings of the company 
down at the Guildhall, and especially of the Prime 
Minister? 

At 6:10 I received the following message: 

Eiffel Toweb, 

German Plenipotentiaries to German High Command. 
Helldorf passed the lines at 3:20 this afternoon (Central 
European time) towards Fourmies. Please facilitate his jour- 
ney up to General Headquarters. 

von Winterfield. 

274 



LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

It was quite clear that as the German officer car- 
rying the terms of the Armistice back to Germany- 
had only crossed the lines bound for Spa at 3 :20 
that afternoon the Armistice could not possibly be 
signed that day, so the message was rushed off to 
the First Lord, with the distances which this officer 
had to travel before he could reach German 
G.H.Q. clearly set out. This enabled the Prime 
Minister to announce that, though he could not 
tell the company present that the Armistice would 
be signed that day, he could tell them that the 
Kaiser had abdicated. 

So I continued waiting all through Saturday 
night and Sunday, and, as the time for the Armis- 
tice came nearer, the excitement grew more in- 
tense, until at last, at 9:40 p.m. on Sunday, No- 
vember 10, Lieutenant Faudel Phillips rushed into 
my rooms with the following message : 

German Wireless. 
German Supeeme Command to Plenipotentiaries with 
THE Allied Command 

The Supreme Government of the German Empire hands to 
the Supreme Army Command the following for Secretary of 
State Erzberger. Your Excellency is empowered to sign the 
Armistice. At the same time, you will hand over the follow- 
ing statement: 

The German Government will endeavour to carry out the 
conditions imposed; but the signatories consider it their duty 
to poiat out that compliance with these conditions must bring 
famine to the population of the part of Germany not to be 
occupied. The abandonment of all stores in the districts to 
be evacuated which were intended for the provisioning of the 

275 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

troops as well as the limitation amounting to sequestration of 
foodstuffs for distribution, in conjunction with a maintenance 
of the blockade, make provisioning- and the organisation of 
distribution impossible. The signatories therefore request 
to be allowed to negotiate with regard to such alterations of 
these points whereby the provisioning may be guaranteed. 
(Signed) Imperial Chancellor. 

The Supreme Command further calls attention to the points 
handed over at noon to-day to General von Winterfield. 

The German Government to the German Plenipotenti- 
aries WITH THE Allied Command 

The German Government accepts the Armistice conditions 
offered on November 8th. 

(Signed) Imperial Chancellor. 

Request acknowledgement of receipt. 

Thereupon the messages were speedily typed 
and roneo^d and sent off to the First Lord and 
Prime Minister, who must have got them by about 
eleven o'clock at latest, though the First Lord had 
already had them by 'phone from me. To my in- 
tense regret it was decided not to permit publica- 
tion of these messages because the signature on 
the message was not '^recognised" as any particu- 
lar head of the Government, being merely signed 
** Imperial Chancellor." I considered that that 
news should have been given to the public in their 
Monday morning papers. However, a Boche is a 
Boche, and so, perhaps, it was as well to wait un- 
til the Germans had actually signed and the Arm- 
istice came into force 

It was impossible with that ferment in one's 
276 



LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

head to sleep, and so I was down again in my of- 
fice next morning at seven o'clock to see the last 
stages of the business through. At 7 :15 a.m. the 
message from our own Allies arrived saying that 
the Germans had signed at ^yq a.m./ and this 
message was sent out as usual to Ministers, and 
at about 10 :50 a.m. we got the welcome news that 
the public would be informed by the firing of three 
maroons. No sooner had the maroons been fired 
than all work stopped, apparently all over Lon- 
don, and, I dare say, all over the country and the 
world, tool Everybody rushed out into "White- 
hall, which before very long was a packed mass 
of happy and excited people, not knowing how to 
give vent to their feelings, and, being truly Brit- 
ish, they were too shy to shout or dance or do any- 
thing, so they stood and swayed about like sheep 
— ^very British, bless them! 

The situation was saved by a subaltern, who, I 
suppose, happened to find himself on a 'bus bound 
down through Whitehall to Westminster. As the 
speed of the 'bus was reduced by the crowd to 
rather less than foot pace, he solemnly stood up 
at the back of the roof, and with his cane beating 
time he started three cheers, which lifted the 
safety valve of the crowd, and they then began to 
give voice to the ferment of joy that was inside 
them. 

This subaltern was a most extraordinary sight. 

* The armistice came into force at the * * eleventh hour of the 
Bleventh day of the eleventh month.'* 

277 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

He travelled to and fro three times on 'buses, 
keeping the crowd yelling and cheering in a per- 
fectly orderly manner, his own face remaining 
like a sphinx with not a trace of a smile on it. He 
did good work that morning. 

The Lords of the Admiralty came out to see 
what was going on, and stood on top of some erec- 
tions which were being built over part of the First 
Lord's old house facing Whitehall. I was moving 
about among the crowd, in ^* mufti,'' as I had been 
practically throughout the war, and told the crowd 
who these people were, and so it was not very long 
before they yelled for a speech, but it would have 
been quite impossible to make a speech owing to 
the continuous uproar that was going on. 

However, the First Lord held up his hand and 
obtained a certain degree of quiet from those with- 
in a radius of about fifty yards, and then called 
for *^three cheers for the British bluejackets," 
which was wildly responded to. More calls for a 
speech, so once more the First Lord held up his 
hand for silence, and then called for ^^ three cheers 
for Sir David Beatty," and the crowd let them- 
selves go once more in response to that call. 

After that the Board returned to their work, and 
no doubt they, like many and, indeed, most others, 
have said: **Well, if this is Peace, for my part 
give me War!" for the work, instead of being on 
certain recognised lines, was completely thrown 
out of gear, and wholly new problems arose as if 
by magic. 

278 



LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

For my part, directly tlie Armistice terms 
reached us I determined to remove the naval cen- 
sorship as soon as it could be clearly seen that the 
Boche intended to carry out the Naval terms of 
the Armistice. As I have shown, this was done 
on November 20, 1918. 

There remained, then, only the clearing up to 
do, tearing up of documents which, in our opinion, 
were not worth putting among the records (and I 
have had ample cause to regret many of those lost 
documents already!), preparing an official record 
of our work, scheduling the documents which were 
to be kept, and demobilising the staff and getting 
them other jobs, some in civil life, and others in 
Government departments whose sphere of work 
grew by reason of peace, demobilisation, and so 
on. 

When I was a boy at school about ten years old, 
I was punished for something I had not done, by 
having that part of me which I should ordinarily 
place on a form or chair thoroughly well caned, 
and then being made to stand on a form (presum- 
ably because I couldn't sit), and told to learn ten 
lines of Caesar. I hated Caesar — not the man, but 
the book; I hated the schoolmaster and the form 
on which I stood. I was very sore both physically 
and mentally, but as I stood up and tried to col- 
lect my thoughts and began to concentrate them 
on old man Caesar's doings, I remember slipping 
my hand into my waistcoat pocket and feeling and 

279 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

caressing a new silver watch my father had given 
me — my first watch — and saying to myself: 
^^ Well, at any rate, they can't take this away from 
me, ' ' and with that warm and comforting feeling 
I tackled Caesar. 

In the days when abuse of the Censor was espe- 
cially warm I tried to console myself with the 
knowledge that I had tucked away at home some 
letters, which I handled now and again as I used 
to handle my new watch when a boy, and say to 
myself that they were ample reward for all the 
worries, annoyances, long hours, broken nights, 
and so on. 

I used to teU my friends that, whatever degree 
of popularity I had attained in London before the 
war, I speedily lost as soon as the war got going, 
for the simple reason that, on being asked for 
news, a popular form of baiting which took place 
with distressing regularity at all luncheons and 
dinners, I invariably said there was no news. By 
the morning I was proved to be a liar, and so one 
by one my acquaintances came to the conclusion 
that I was a ^^ wash-out,'' or *^dud," or ** dead- 
head," whilst some friends from across the Atlan- 
tic guessed I *^was a back number, anyway." 

Throughout the war, and especially during the 
later years of it, I was frequently bidden to ban- 
quets or luncheons given to Allied, Overseas, and 
most often American pressmen. I listened to a 
lot, a great lot, of speeches, and went back to the 

280 



LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

Aidmiralty to work. On every occasion I was the 
butt of one or more of the speakers ; and, of course, 
of all quasi-comic speakers, who, when in search 
for a word or a yarn, would metaphorically throw 
a cabbage at the Censor; it was the recognised 
form of wit, and like the mother-in-law of my 
younger days at the music halls never failed to 
draw a round of applause ! But on no single oc- 
casion was I ever asked to reply, or to say a word 
in my own defence. 

I like to lend myself to any good cause, and if 
the genuine pleasure the applause seemed to indi- 
cate aided the digestion of the company, tant 
mieux; the plain fact remains that tail-twisting of 
**The Censor'* became a habit with every after- 
dinner speaker connected with newspapers or 
books like chewing-gum or any other senseless 
practice, and only on one occasion did I ever hear 
a man who had the courage to say a word in fa- 
vour of that miserable devil, ^^The Censor." 

That one speaker was at a dinner given to 
American journalists at the Ritz, which took place 
the day after the Armistice. I would give much 
to remember his name, because he had the courage 
to say what I am certain many must have felt, but 
had not the *^ guts'' to acknowledge — ^viz., that he 
considered the Censor was really an essential per- 
son, and could not be dispensed with. He cited 
his own case during the Spanish- American War, 
when he cabled from Key West to his paper the 

281 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

number of the American squadrons, the names of 
the ships, their precise locations, &c., &c., and he 
finished up by saying that in his sober judgment 
(and it being speech time this was after dinner) 
he should have been shot for that senseless act 
which any Censor would have prevented. I take 
off my hat to that one speaker ! 

But writing thus I have run away from those 
letters which are now among my most cherished 
possessions. The first which I pick up is from 
Commander Charles N. Robinson, the Naval cor- 
respondent of the Times. ^^AU the newspaper 
men who have worried you during the war,'' he 
wrote, ^^will, I am sure, be pleased and gratified 
by the advancement of the Chief Naval Censor'' — 
I had been promoted to Rear- Admiral. He said 
a number of other nice things, but I am normally 
a modest man. And another letter which reached 
me the same morning was si^ed ^^J. E. M.-S." 
The writer is now Sir James Masterton-Smith, 
and I valued his kindly words. ^ ^ It is not a mere 
figure of speech to tell you, what I have often told 
you before," he wrote, *^that the job you have 
been given throughout the war has been one of the 
most difficult bits of work that any single man in 
London has had thrust upon him; and that you 
should have survived the life of your office for 
over four long years and have emerged from it 
with distinction and with honour, is a measure 
of the skill and success with which you have dis- 

282 



LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

charged the duties of Chief Censor at the British 
Admiralty. '' ^'J. E. M.-S.'' has been up against 
some tough propositions in the course of his 
varied career, having acted as Private Secretary 
to five First Lords of the Admiralty in succession 
— Mr. McKenna, Mr. Churchill, Mr. Balfour, Sir 
Edward Carson and Sir Eric Geddes. So Master- 
ton-Smith knows what ^^ difficult bits of work'^ are 
like. I forbear to bore any readers of these rem- 
iniscences who are still hanging on wondering 
when I shall have finished counting these ^* bou- 
quets'' of a more or less personal character. But 
I cannot omit mentioning the letter I received with 
the heading ''Committee Eoom Lloyd's, Royal 
Exchange, London, E. C," and dated November 
16, 1918. It is signed by Admiral Sir E. F. Ingle- 
field and he congratulated me on my work at the 
Admiralty. ''The work must have been very try- 
ing most of the time, but I have heard nothing but 
admiration expressed on all sides for the way you 
have conducted it." And then there is another 
letter from Mr. W. W. Bradfield, C.B.E., man- 
ager of the Marconi Company. 

I had sent him back the code books, and in ac- 
knowledging them he added, "I take the opportu- 
nity to say that all hands here wish me to thank 
you and your associates very sincerely for the 
courteous, considerate and most business-like 
manner in which the duties of Chief Censor have 
been exercised since the establishment of your 

283 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

office in August, 1914.'' A very pleasant farewell 
word came to me from across the Atlantic from 
Colonel Ernest J. Chambers, Chief Censor for 
Canada. One of the difficulties of the censorship 
was to preserve a uniform standard in all parts of 
the Empire as to what information could or could 
not be published. Colonel Chambers referred to 
this matter in writing to me : 

**You do not quite realise, perhaps, how grati- 
fying and helpful it has been to feel that as re- 
gards the vitally important matter of naval and 
marine censorship, I have had available through 
your unfailing courtesy a channel of direct com- 
munication and a source of authoritative advice 
which I could always depend upon at short notice. 
It was largely due to the knowledge possessed 
by the newspaper men and shipping interests of 
Canada that this Office was in direct communica- 
tion with a high and responsible official at the 
Admiralty, whose prompt and sympathetic atten- 
tion to requests for information relating to cen- 
sorship topics could always be depended upon, 
that there was such a very fair observance in 
Canada during the War of censorship require- 
ments regarding naval and marine news.'' 

But I really cannot go on in this strain, and I 
must finish up with the note I received from Lord 
Beaverbrook. He was ill at the time that my office 
closed down, but nevertheless he sent me a most 
kind letter. **The smooth working of the regime 

284 



LAST DAYS OF THE CENSORSHIP 

of the Ministry — i. e., Ministry of Information — > 
with the Admiralty was entirely due to your wil- 
lingness to consider every point raised on its mer- 
its, and to assist us by every method in your pow- 
er. I shall always be extremely grateful to you 
for the help that you afforded the Ministry. It 
was always a great pleasure for me to work with 
you." 

I have put away the other letters as I haven't 
the courage or the inclination to go on in this 
strain. What I did, good, bad, or indifferent, I 
did to the best of my ability, and we will leave it 
at that. 

A most gratifying mark of approval of my work 
consisted in the bestowal upon me of a number of 
decorations — C.B., Officer of the Legion of Hon- 
our, and the D.S.M. of the United States. The 
last-named was received some three months after 
I had written the bulk of this book, but some 
months before its publication. I was frequently 
asked by ladies what this or that ribbon meant, 
and my invariable reply was that it had been given 
me for eating pea-soup with a fork. It may well 
be said that I have been far too amply rewarded 
for my work, which consisted of sitting in an office 
at the Admiralty while my brother officers were 
out playing the game in the North Sea and else- 
where. I agree, but all I can say is that I did not 
ask for these decorations. 

On March 2, 1919, having cleared up the out- 
285 



INDISCRETIONS OF THE NAVAL CENSOR 

standing contracts and closed up the office, I de- 
mobilised myself and walked out a free man ; and 
there ceased to exist the Chief Naval Censor. 

(P. S. — I wish I could have told the whole 
truth!) 




PASSED 

CHIEF CE"NSOR, ADMIRALTY 
DATE 191 



FINIS 



286 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Specimens or censored photographs showing 
changes required on the original, to comply 
with censorship requirements, and the 
reproduction as released for publication. 



"T^'W 




WITH THE GRAKD FLEET: SHIPS ASTER X, H. M. S. AGIKCOURT AKD H. M. 
BEKBOW 






s&s>?s^«ST'"-';ss«"-;5S!Si-aij'~i~5j3r" 





A^^\\. 



:IIE ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH AS PUBLISHED 

5moke was added to obscure the fire-control of the ships 



[289] 



\fihi t '' 



wm 










« o 



[290] 




tti^a.^.^- 









M 






g Oh 
M 03 



as ;3 

S o 

a 2 

M a 

H Si 



[292] 







T3 

o 






S S 



g I 



[293] 




II. M. THE KING VISITING THE GRAND FLEET: LEAVING A SUBMARINE 

This photograph shows the Censor's markings before publication was 
allowed 




THE ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH AS PUBLISHED 



[294] 




H. M. THE IvIXG OX 



BOARD A SUPER-DREADXOUGIIT 



The Censor marked for erasion the tampions of the guns, which bear the 
figure of Queen Elizabeth, as well as the sighting hoods 




THE ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH AFTER THE ALTERATIONS HAD BEEK MADE 



[295] 




[296] 




[297] 




H. M. S. BEXBOW IK TOW 




THE ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH AS CENSORED 

The paravane has been eliminated 



£298] 



/ 



THE INDEX 



I 



INDEX 



Aboukir, sinking of, 36 
Admiralty, the, a special con- 
ference at, 104 
and naval films, 51 
commandeer ferry-boats, 108 
increased staff of, 50 
interviews to the Press, 89 
organisation at, 18 
the ''M" branch of, 221 
Admiralty Press Officer, ap- 
pointment of an, 103 
Agincourt, 48 (note) 
Air raids, Mr. Balfour and, 55 
on London and Dover, 55, 
185, 252 
Aitken, Charles, Director of 

Tate Gallery, 172 
Ajax, 48 (note) 
Albert, author at, 250 
Alfree, Lieutenant G. S., 173 
Allen, Ben, joins Mr. Hoover, 

138 
Allen, Mr., and the Wireless 

Press, 209 
Allies, the, activities of their 

naval forces, 38 
America, F. M., of Associated 

Press, 146 
American Battle Squadron, the, 

144, 256 
American censorship v. Eng- 
lish, 152 
destroyers : cleanliness of, 

256 
journalists, author and, 136 
journalists' Fleet visit, 155, 

157 
lady journalist and her 

''scoop,'' 95 
Mission of War Workers 
visit the Fleet, 163 



American censorship v. English, 
naval mails, censoring of, 88 
photographs of Audacious, 

48 (note) 
Americans, Sir L. Bayly and, 

255 
Anderson, J. W. S., tribute to, 

221 
Anglia mined, 186 
Ardent, loss of, 65 
Armistice, the, signed by Ger- 
many, 277 
terms conveyed to Germany, 

274 
Arras, a day at, 250 
Artists and the naval war, 

171 
Ashwell, Miss Lena, concert 

parties of, 229 
Audacious, loss of, 36 

news of loss suppressed, 46 
Australian journalists visit 

Grand Fleet, 161 
Auten, Lieutenant, a visit to 

his ''Q" boat, 257 

Bacon, Admiral Sir E., and M. 

de Marsillac, 149 
plans for blocking Zeebrugge, 

117 
superseded by Sir E. Keyes, 

117 
Balfour, Right Hon. A. J., as 

First Lord, 50 
at the Alhambra, 52 
Jutland battle communique, 

64 
Lord Northcliff e 's brusque 

letter to, 89 
overcomes objections to naval 

films, 51 



303 



INDEX 



Bapaume, author ^s visit to, 250 

Bar-le-Duc, a dinner at, 261 

' ' Bartimeus, " his work in 
Grand Fleet, 130 

Baseball-playing at Queens- 
town, 255 

Bashmakoff, M., 157 

Battenberg, Prince Louis of 
{see Louis) 

Battle-cruiser fleet, a difference 
of opinion in, 195 

Battlefields visited by author, 
248 et seq., 260 et seq. 

Bayly, Sir Lewis, Admiral 
Commanding at Queens- 
town, 83 
and American Press repre- 
sentatives, 140 
entertains author, 253 
his hatred of publicity, 255 

Beamish, Captain T. P. H., 
Naval Assistant to Prince 
Louis, 31 

Beatty, Lady, and her hus- 
band's portrait, 179 

Beatty, Sir David, and a new 
naval film, 101 
and Jutland battle, 62, 63 
arranges details for surrender 

of German Fleet, 182 
becomes Commander-in-Chief, 

83 
sanctions Naval Photographic 
Exhibition, 99 

Beaverbrook, Lord, a kind let- 
ter to author from, 284 
author's relations with, 97 

Beer, Lieutenant-Commander, 
Admiralty Press Officer, 
103, 163, 168 

Belgrove, E. W., 237 

Belleu Wood, a visit to, 260 

Belloc, Hilaire, lectures to the 
Fleet, 229 

Bennett, J. J., author on, 130 

Bignon, M. Paul, visits the 
Fleet, 165 

Bilborough, Mr.*, 25 

Birkenhead, Lord {see Smith, 
Sir F. E.) 



Blaclc Prince, sinking of, 65 
Blackwood, Mr., and the author, 

59 
Bland-Sutton, Sir John, a novel 

holiday for, 226 
Blockade, the, postal censorship 

and, 199 
Blilcher, 48 
Blumenfeld, Mr., and a stopped 

cable, 236 
Bone, Captain David, 129, 130 

tours with his brother, 176 
Bone, ''Jimmy," 176 
Bone, Muirhead, 129, 173, 174 
and the surrender of German 

Fleet, 176 
Borden, Sir Eobert, witnesses 

production of naval films, 

52 
Bottomley, Horatio, visits the 

Fleet, 95 
Bower, Sir Graham, and Fleet 

lectures, 229 
Boyle, Commander, a V.C. for, 

173 
Boyle, Eear-Admiral the Hon. 

Algernon, a night with, 259 
Bradfield, W. W., and the 

Wireless Press, 209 
congratulates author on his 

work as Censor, 283 
Manager of Marconi Com- 
pany, 207 
Brand, Commodore, 179, 183 
Brazilian naval officers' visit to 

the Fleet, 161 
Bridge, Lieutenant Cyprian, 

appointed assistant to au- 
thor, 16, 17 
joins the Naval Division, 31 
Bristol, 44, 45 

' ' Britain Prepared, ' ' produc- 
tion of, 51 
British journalists visit the 

Fleet, 158, 161 
British tonnage losses, 142 
Brittain, Sir Harry, and Fleet 

lectures, 229 
and the American Mission of 

War Workers, 153 



304 



INDEX 



Brooks, Ernest, first official 
naval photographer, 28 

recalled from Western Front, 
99 
Erownrigg, Inspector, 242 
Brownrigg, Kear-Admiral Sir 
Douglas, a hint to dis- 
courteous visitors, 218 

a spoilt evening, 37 

a story against himself, 
234 

an attack of bronchitis, and 
how cured, 49 

and losses of merchant ships, 
56 

and secret messages, 23 

and Sir Henry Jackson, 53 

and transmission of war 
news, 206 

appointed Chief Censor, 16 

censors naval letters, 201 
et seq. 

cinema organisation of, 51- 
86 

correspondence with First 
Lord on a newspaper para- 
graph, 115 

decorations for, 285 

heckled at a Press confer- 
ence, 149 

' ' holidays ' ' while Censor, 
239 

in a motor mishap, 265 

inspects radio stations, 246 

made a ''Competent Naval 
Authority,'' 162 

on pressmen of Allied coun- 
tries, 136 et seq. 

promotion for, 282 

reads proofs of Lord Jelli- 
coe's work, 132 

recollections of authors and 
publishers, 118 et seq, 

retires from the Navy, 1 

returns to pre-War occupa- 
tion, 217 

scenes with Sir G. Riddell, 
102 

Sir John Bland-Sutton and, 
226 



Brownrigg, Rear-Admiral Sir 
Douglass, threatened with 
proceedings for libel, 59 
told to go on leave, 114 
visits American Front in 
France, 258 

Buchan (Colonel) John, au- 
thor's relations with, 96 

Bumham, Lord, and Admiralty 
conferences with the Press, 
90 

Byne, Major, his work at Clif- 
den, 244 

Byng, Sir Julian, 250 

Cable Censors, 24 

Calthorpe, Admiral, and Dar- 
danelles Expedition, 188 

Campbell, Commander, awarded 
the V.C, 173 
heroism of, 192 

Canadian journalists and M.P.s 
visit Grand Fleet, 161 

Canopus, 40, 41 

Carlisle, a ** breeze" in an ho- 
tel at, 164 

Carnarvon chases the enemy, 
44 

Carson, Sir Edward, consulted 
by author, 210 

Cassel, an interesting day at, 
251 

Castle, Captain, 99 

Cave, Sir George, and the Wire- 
less Press matter, 210 

Cayley, Commodore (after- 
wards Admiral) George, 
and his Harwich Com- 
mand, 49 

Cayley, General, his air com- 
mand, 197 

Censor, ''holidays" of a, 239 
et seq. 

Censors at Marconi stations, 
206, 207 

Censorship, last days of, 271 
et seq. 
of commercial cables, 24 
of naval letters, 198 et seq. 

Chalons-sur-Mame visited, 261 



305 



INDEX 



Chambers, Colonel Ernest J., a 

farewell message from, 284 
Chateau-Thierry, a visit to, 260 
Chaumet, M., visits the Fleet, 

157 
Chief Postal Censor, the, 198, 

199 
Christian, Captain Harold, and 
censorship of wireless sta- 
tions, 208 
death of, 208 
Chukowsky, M., 157 
Churchill, Winston, a message 
to the Admiralty Staff, 17 
an unpublished communique 

of, 37 
and loss of Audacious, 46 
and the Dardanelles Expedi- 
tion, 26 
author 's relations with, 21, 26 
leaves the Admiralty, 49 
strenuous work of, 21, 28 
views on Jutland battle, 68 
Cinema entertainments for 

Americans, 86 
Cinematograph films, of the 
Navy, 51 
lost at sea, 87 
Clemenceau, M., at Metz, 262 

visits the Fleet, 157 
Clifden wireless station, 206, 

243 
Collins, Mr., of the Associated 

Press, 140 
Commercial cables, censorship 

of, 24 
Connard, Captain Philip, and 
Imperial War Museum, 172 
his work as artist, 173, 181 
vicissitudes of, 185 
** Connor, Ealph" (see Gordon, 

Major the Kev.) 
Conqueror, 48 (note) 
Conrad, Joseph, a cruise in a 

''Q" boat, 79 
Convoy ships, newspaper men 

on, 209 
Corbett, Sir Julian, writes ap- 
preciation of Jutland bat- 
tle, 70 



Cornford, Cope, journalistic 

work of, 127 
Cornwall, 43, 44 
Cornwell, Jack, a V.C. for, 

173 
Coronel, battle of, 31, 40 
Cradock's squadron in action, 

31 
how the news reached Eng- 
land, 35 
Courageous, Mr. Pears' picture 

of, 176 
Cradock, Admiral Sir C, and 
the ''immortal memory '* 
of Nelson, 35 
avenged, 37 

his squadron destroyed, 31 
Crease, Commander Thomas, 
becomes author's assistant, 
16, 17 
Naval Assistant to Lord 
Fisher, 31 
Cressy, sinking of, 36 

Daffodil commandeered for 
Zeebrugge operations, 108 

Daily Chronicle and question 
of publicity, 104 

Daily Express, a ''stopped" 
cable for, 236 

Daily Mail and the censorship, 
104 

Daily Telegraph and N.P.A. 
conference, 104, 105 

Danae, an artist on, 194 

Danehenko, M., 157 

Dardanelles Exposition, the, 26, 
28 

Dawson, Nelson, and the 
Imperial War Museum, 
173 
his work as artist, 185 

De Chassaigne, M. Coudurier, 
President of Foreign Jour- 
nalists' Society, 148 

De Constant, M., visits the 
Fleet, 157 

Defence, loss of, 65 

De Filippi, Sir Filippo, lectures 
to the Fleet, 229 



306 



INDEX 



De Marsillac, M., enterprise of, 

148 
Department of Information, 

the, and its work, 51, 52, 

94 
and the Wireless Press, 210 
Berfflinger in Jutland battle, 

67 
Diaries, why forbidden in 

Grand Fleet, 125 
Digby, Commander the Hon. 

Gerald, 24 
Dodd, Francis, author and, 173 
his drawings for National 

Portrait Gallery, 178 
paints Sir David Beatty's 

portrait, 179 
sea experiences of, 180 
Dodgson, Campbell, 174 
Donald, Robert, and the censor- 
ship, 104, 105 
Donaldson, Sir F., death of, 

75 
Doumer, M., visits the Fleet, 

158 
Dover, air raid on, 180 
Draper, Mr., of New York 

Tribune, 146 
Dresden, 39, 44 

sinking of, 36 (note) 
Dublin rebellion, the, 239 
Dukouretsky, M., 157 

Ebeet, Deputy, becomes Im- 
perial Chancellor, 272 

Egoroff, M., 157 

EUershaw, Brigadier-General, 
death of, 75 

Enemy colliers captured and 
sunk, 45 

Engholm, Lieutenant, visits 
Queenstown, 253 

* * England 's Effort, ' ' publica- 
tion of, 156 

Brin, 48, 151 

Evans, Sir Samuel, author's 
friendship with, 227 

Everett, Commodore Allan, 
Naval Assistant to Sir 
Henry Jackson, 53 



Falkland Islands, battle of, 

43 
Ferraby, H. C, a projected 

submarine trip abandoned, 

128 
Ferry-boats commandeered for 

Zeebrugge operations, 108 
Fisher, Lord, and a supposed 

cable from Lord North- 

cliffe, 218 
and an unpublished commu- 
nique, 37 
and loss of Audacious, 46 
author's relations with, 32 
becomes First Sea Lord, 31, 

35 
facsimile letter from, 213 
Fitzgerald, Colonel, author 'a 

last chat with, 74 
death of, 75 
"Fleet Press Message," the, 

139 
Fleet, the {see Grand Fleet, 

Navy) 
Flint, A., tribute to, 221 
Foch, General, at Metz, 262 
Forster, Lieutenant Arnold, ex- 
periences as an artist in 

the air, 196 
Fort Thionville and Verdun, 264 
Fortune, sinking of, 65 
France, author's motor mishap 

in, 265 
Franeourt, the guest chateau 

at, 249 
Freeman, Lewis, author and, 

149 
joins the Grand Fleet, 151 
French journalists, author and, 

148 
visit the Grand Fleet, 155, 

158 
French Senators and Deputies' 

visit to the Fleet, 157, 165 
Fryatt, Captain, murder of, 

150 



Galway, enemy landing at, 244 
Gardiner, A. G., an argument 
with, 251 



307 



INDEX 



Geddes, Bir Eric, and a new 
naval film, 101 
and a Jellicoe paragraph, 

113 
and record of surrender of 

German Fleet, 183 
becomes First Lord, 92 
opens Naval Photographic 
Exhibition, 99 
George V., King, visits the 

Fleet, 166, 168 
George, Lloyd, and the Lord 
Major's Banquet of 1918, 
274 
Georgeson, Lieutenant, a trib- 
ute to, 270 
in a motor mishap, 265 
meets author in Paris, 259 
^'George's O. Pip," 251 
German losses in Jutland bat- 
tle, 67 
message on Jutland battle, 

62 
wireless announces abdication 
of Kaiser, 271 
Germany, accepts and signs 
Armistice, 275, 277 
an excursion into, 262 
surrenders her Fleet, 134, 182 
terms of Armistice conveyed 

to, 274 
the Army of Occupation in, 
263, 265 
Gevres, American supply Depot 

at, 269 
Gibbon, Perceval, writes up an 

epic story, 110 
Gibraltar, the U. S. Squadron 

at, 87 
Glace Bay wireless station, 207 
Glasgow, Sunday aspect of, 217 
Glasgow, 40, 41, 43, 44 
in Coronel battle, 34 
Gneisenau, 37 
loss of, 44 
survivors rescued, 45 
Good Hope, 40; sinking of, 35, 

41 
Gordon, Major the Eev., visits 
the Fleet, 157 

308 



Grand Fleet, the, and photog- 
raphers, 167 
chaperon ofScers and their 

tact, 163 et seq. 
dislike of publicity, 51, 54, 

68, 69, 94, 255 
entertainments for, 229 
filming the, 101 
how created, 133 
lectures for, 228 
Press Panels set up, 106 
strength of, 48 (note) 
visitors to, 154 et seq. 
Grandcourt, Mills bombs at, 249 
Grant, Captain Bernard, joins 

Air Force, 99 
Grasty, Charles, "discoveries'* 

of, 142 
Great Britain declares war, 18 
Great War, anxious days in, 252 
dramatic final stages of, 271 
emergency arrangements on 
outbreak of, 16 
Greene, Sir Graham, and au- 
thor, 60 
circulates First Lord's mes- 
sage of commendation, 19 
goes to Ministry of Muni- 
tions, 102 
Gribble, Bernard, art work of, 

194 
Grigg, Mr., of New Yorh 

World, 146 
Gwynne, H. A., an unusual re- 
quest from, 226 

Habokoff, M., 157 

Haig, General, at Metz, 262 

Hall, Bear-Admiral Sir Regi- 
nald, attends N.P.A. con- 
ference, 104 
farewell dinner to, 128 

Hamilton, Admiral Sir Fred- 
erick, at Rosyth, 174 

Hampshire, loss of, 74 

Harris, Commander P. Lever- 
ton, and the blockade, 25, 
196 

Harwich cure for bronchitis, 
the, 49 



INDEX 



HaulTDOwline Dockyard, 257 
Hearst Press refused cable 

privileges, 146 
Helium gas, introduction of, 

223 
Henry of Prussia, Prince, Lord 

Fisher's cable to, 32 
High Sea Fleet, and Jutland 

battle, 62 
mutiny in, 271 
strength of, 48 (note) 
Hogue, sinking of, 36 
Holbrook, Lieutenant-Comman- 
der, a V.C. for, 173 
Holmes, Charles J., Director of 

National Gallery, 172 
Hoover, Mr., 138 
Houlder, Frank, a projected 

tour abandoned, 216 
Hurd, Archibald, intervenes at 

N.P.A. conference, 104 
journalistic work of, 128 

Imperial War Museum, the, 

proposals of, 171 et seq. 
Indefatigable, loss of, 65 
In-flexible, 35, 43, 44 
Inglefiel^, Admiral E. F., a 

knighthood for, 58 
and author's work as Censor, 

283 
' ' International News ' ' {see 

Hearst Press) 
Invincible, 35, 43, 44 

loss of, 64 
Ireland, wireless stations in, 

239 
Iris commandeered for Zee- 

brugge operations, 108 
Iron Duke, 48 (note) 
Isaacs, Godfrey Charles, and 

Wireless Press Agency, 

209 
Italian journalists visit Fleet, 

158 

Jackson, Sir Henry, as First 
Sea Lord, 53 
communique on Jutland bat- 
tle, 64 



Jackson, Sir Henry, his dislike 

to publicity, 54 
''Jackstaff" (see Bennett, J. 

J.) 
Jellicoe, Sir John (Viscount), 

naval films, 51 
and the loss of Audaoious, 

48 (note) 
as author, 132 
author 's relations with, 83 
becomes First Sea Lord, 82 
congratulates Sir Koger 

Keyes, 112 
details of Jutland battle, 63, 

65 
entertains Mr. Arthur Page, 

159 
his dispatch on Jutland bat- 
tle edited and published, 

70 
on the loss of Hampshire, 75 
vindicates author, 117 
Jones, Commander Loftus, 

gains the V.C, 173 
Jury, Sir William, interest in 

cinema work of, 87, 222 
Jutland battle, communique on, 

63, 64, 66 
criticism and defence of first 

communique on, 63, 65 
leakage of information 

through private letters, 69 
source of first news of, 62 
the 2nd Battle Squadron in, 

36 (note) 



Keen, Mr., of the United Prew, 

140 
Kelly, Colonel, author's meet- 
ing with, 269 
Kemmel Hill (see Mount 

Kemmel) 
Kent, 43 

sinks NUrnberg, 45 
Keyes, Sir Eoger, and Lord 
Jellicoe, 112 
and the ofl&cial narrative on 

Zeebrugge, 111 
succeeds Admiral Bacon, 117 



309 



INDEX 



Keynes, Maynard, lectures at 
the Admiralty, 233 

Killaloe, a night at, 245 

Kipling, Eudyard, articles on 
Jutland battle by, 72 

Kitchener, Lord, death of, 74 
et seq. 
rumoured capture of, by Ger- 
mans, 76 

Knight, George, and war photo- 
graphs, 29 

Land and Water, a striking 

article in, 50 
Lauder, Harry, an offer of, re- 
fused, 230 
Laurie, General, 251 
Lavery, Sir John, 181 

an historic picture by, 183 
and the Imperial War Mu- 
seum, 172 
Leake, Commodore Martin, 254 
Lecturers for the Grand Fleet, 

228 
Leinster, sunk in Irish Channel, 

59 
Leipzig, 39 

on fire and sinks, 44 
survivors rescued, 45 
Leveson, Lionel, 36-16 
Leveson, Eear-Admiral Sir Ar- 
thur C, Director of Oper- 
ations, 31 
his command in Jutland bat- 
tle, 30 (note) 
news of Falklands battle, 30 
visits Western Front, 248, 
249 
Leygues, M., a visit to the 

Fleet, 157 
Lima, Sir Bertram, and the 
Naval Photographic Ex- 
hibition, 99 
Lion, Muirhead Bone 's drawing 

of, 175 
Lloyd's, and author's work as 
Censor, 283 
co-operation of, 57, 58 
London, air raids on, 54, 185, 
252 



London, Armistice Day scenes 

in, 267 
Longwy visited, 263 
Louis of Battenberg, Prince, aa 

First Sea Lord, 30 
succeeded by Lord Fisher, 35 
Luce, Captain John, cables news 

of Coronel battle, 35 
LutBow in Jutland battle, 67 
Luxembourg, a night at, 261-263 

MacColl, D. S., Keeper of Wal- 
lace Collection, 172 
Macedonia, 43, 45 
Maddick, Dr. Distin, and a new 
Fleet film, 101 
films arrival of American de- 
stroyers, 83 
Mails, naval, censoring of, 88 
Mair, G. H., of Department of 

I Information, 94, 96 
Malin Head, wireless station at, 

240 
Manly, an explosion on, 257 
Marconi Company, the, a trib- 
ute to, 211 
and author's work as Censor, 

283 
relations with, 206 
Marlowe, Thomas, and the cen- 
sorship, 104 
Marriott, Captain John, 253 
Marsh, Edward H., private se- 
cretary to Mr. Churchill, 
183 
Marshall, Mr., and the "Fleet 

Press Message," 139 
Masterman, Mr., and the De- 
partment of Information, 
52 
and Mr. Bone, 173 
Masterton-Smith, Sir James E., 
and a daylight raid, 56 
his career as private secre- 
tary, 282-21 
informs Premier of death of 

Kitchener, 76 
letter to author on end of 

censorship, 282 
suspects a hoax, 61 



310 



INDEX 



McEvoy, Ambrose, 173, 181 
and Imperial War Museum, 

172 ' 
McPherson, Second-Lieut., death 

of, 75 
Melville, 81, 87, 140 

captain's gifts to author, 259 
inspected by First Sea Lord, 

256 
Members of Parliament visit 

the Fleet, 157 
Mercantile Marine, a work on, 

130 
Merchant ships, question of 

publication of losses of, 56 
Messines, a visit to, 251 
Metz, a students' "rag" at, 

262 
Metz Cathedral, the Kaiser's 

statue, 262 
Meurer, Admiral von, and the 

surrender of German Fleet, 

182, 183 
Mills bombs as souvenirs, 250 
Ministry of Information, the, 

29, 97 
and the Censor, 268 
Monmouth, 40; loss of, 41 
Montgomery, C. H., and the De- 
partment of Information, 

94, 96 
Morning Post, articles by Sir 

John Bland-Sutton in, 227 
supports the censorship, 105 
Morris, Mr., of Associated 

Press, 146 
Mount Kemmel, two hours on, 

252 
Murmansk, a cinema outfit for, 

222 
Murray, Sir Oswyn, a charming 

note from, 117 
and the censorship of the 

Press, 19 
at the N.P.A. conference, 104 
dines with author, 115 

Nasmyth, Captain, a V.C. for, 

173 
Nauen Wireless, the, 273 



Naval Camouflage School, the, 
195 

Naval censorship, and other de- 
partments, 84 et seq. 
end of, 132, 134, 135, 279, 

281 
establishment of, 15 et seq. 

Naval films, production of, 
51 
letters, censoring of, 198 et 
seq. 

Naval Photographic Exhibition, 
a, 98 
pictures presented to Cana- 
dian Grovernment, 100 

Navy, the, and the Kipling ar- 
ticles, 72 
deprecates publicity, 51, 54, 

68, 69, 167, 255 
* * privilege ' ' envelopes for, 
201 (See also Grand Fleet) 

Neal, Lieut., photographic work 
of, 99, 253 

Needham, E. W., secretary to 
Lord Beaverbrook, 100 

Neufchateau, the guest house 
at, 261, 264 

Newbolt, Sir Henry, author's 
relations with, 120 

New Guinea lost to the Ger- 
mans, 38 

New Zealand in dock, 48 (note) 

Newspaper Proprietors ' Asso- 
ciation, the, 91, 102 
** breezes" with, 167 
clamour for more publicity, 
102 

Niblack, Admiral, author and, 
88 

Nicholson, W. F., a tribute to, 
221 

Northcliffe, Lord, and First 
Lords ' conferences with the 
Press, 89 

Noyes, Alfred, author and, 118 
''Mystery Ships" of, pub- 
lished and withdrawn, 
119 

Niirnberg, 39; chased and sunk, 
44 J survivors rescued, 45 



311 



INDEX 



O'Beirne, Mb., death of, 75 
O 'Flaherty, Pat, a trip in an 

airplane, 145 
Oliver, Vice-Admiral Sir H., 

and Jutland communique, 

64 
and ''Q" boat permits, 79 
Olympic, 48 (note) 
Orion, 48 (note) 
Ostend, preparations for raid 

on, 109 
Otranto, 40, 41, 42 
Overseas journalists visit the 

Fleet, 161 
Owens, Major, head of U. S. 

Photographic Department 

in England, 224 
introduces helium gas, 223 

Packe, Edward, pourparlers 
with, 114 

Page, Arthur, visits the Fleet, 
158 

Page, Dr. W. H., author's 
friendship with, 158 

Paget, Admiral Sir Alfred, ap- 
pointed Senior Naval Of- 
ficer at Larne, 240 

Paine, Commodore, head of 
Naval Air Service, 224 

Paine, Ealph, tact and popu- 
larity of, 144 

Papeete, bombardment of, 38 

Parker, Dr. Joseph, a story of, 
235 

Patchin, Mr., author and, 138 

Pears, Charles, and Imperial 
War Museum, 172 
art work of, 173, 181, 189 

Pearson, Colonel H. S., Chief 
Postal Censor, 88, 199 
his museum of curiosities, 200 

Peers' visit to the Fleet, 157 

Pershing, General, his arrival 
kept secret, 84 
pictures of his landing, 85 
visits Metz, 262 

Fetch, Albany, 228 

Phillips, Lieutenant Faudel, 275 

Phillips, Sir Claude, 172 



Philpot, Glyn, and the Im- 
perial War Museum, 172, 
173, 181 
Photographers, the Fleet and, 

167 
Photographs, censorship of, 29 
Pichon, M., visits the Fleet, 157 
Poineare, M., at Metz, 262 
Poldhu, wireless station at, 206 
Postal censorship, and the 
blockade, 199 
the public and, 200 
Press Bureau, birth of, 20 
Press Panels and the Zee- 

brugge attack. 111 
Press, the, a communique to, 
suppressed, 37 
and death of Lord Kitchener, 

76 
and dispatch on Jutland bat- 
tle, 71 
and question of naval pub- 
licity, 104 
circularised as to raids on 
Ostend and Zeebrugge, 10^ 
first issue of communiques to, 

20 
informal talks with repre- 
sentatives of, 89 
Sir John Jellicoe and, 82 
Price, Clair, of Curtis Brown 

News, 146 
Pringle, Commander, 140, 256 
explains technicalities of 

baseball playing, 256 
requests films for U. S, flo- 
tilla, 86 
Prize in action with a U-boat, 

191 
Prohibited areas, permits to en- 
ter, 162 
Protopopoff, M., visits the 

Fleet, 95, 157 
Publicity and propaganda, 

problems of, 46 et seq. 
Publicity Department of the 
Admiralty, danger of, 236 



*'Q" Boat, author visits a, 257 
in action with a U-boat, 191 



312 



INDEX 



'^0" boats, Captain Campbell 

" and, 193 
Queen Elizabeth, 176 
German representatives on, 
183 
Queen Mary, sinking of, 65 
Queenstown, American destroyer 
base at, 253 
amusements and entertain- 
ments at, 86, 256 
arrival of American destroy- 
ers at, 83 
author's visit to, 252 
seaplane stations at, 257 



Eadio stations placed under 
control, 17 

Eailway time tables, censoring 
of, 58 

Eanken, W., drawings of, 194 

Eeuter's protest against Wire- 
less Press agency, 209 

Eheims and its ruined cathe- 
dral, 260 

Eiddell, Sir George, author and, 
102 
champions censorship at 
Peace Conference, 107 

Eoberts, Captain, tribute to, 
232 

Eobertson, Mr., death of, 75 

Eobinson, Commander, award- 
ed the V.C., 173 

Eobinson, Commander Charles 
N., naval correspondent of 
The Times, 282 

Eobinson, Lieut. Gordon, and a 

"breeze" in an hotel, 164 

and a French Parliamentary 

party, 165 
his varied duties, 162 

Eodman, Admiral Hugh, 87, 
144, 256 

Eomorantin, U. S. Aviation 
depot at, 269 

Eoosevelt, Mr., letters from 
Mrs. Humphry Ward, 156 

Eosyth as a ** mystery" port, 
154 



Eoumania, wireless news from, 

208 

Eoyal Naval Air Service, pro- 
spective amalgamation of, 
80 

Eoyal Navy, V.C. awards for 
the, 173 

Eoyds, Captain, as arbitrator, 
189 

Eussia, wireless communiquJSs 
from, 208, 211 

Eussians visit the Fleet, 157 

St. Mihiel, roads at, 263 

Samoa, captured by New Zea- 
landers, 38 

Sanders, Lieutenant-Com- 
mander of Prize, 191, 
192 

Sanders, Mr., a present for, 191 

Scandinavian journalists visit 
the Fleet, 154, 156 

Scharnhorst in action, 44 
turns over and sinks, 45 

Schwab, Charles, visits author, 
228 

Scottish journalists' Meet visit, 
163 

Serocold, Lieutenant C. P., 159 

Share, Paymaster-Captain, 112 

Shearme, Paymaster-Command- 
er E. H., 159, 164 
and a suppressed communi- 
que, 37 
valuable assistance of, 31 

Shiach, Captain, as bomb- 
thrower, 250 

Shipping losses, and question of 
publication of, 56 

Sims, Admiral, an indiscreet 
conversation of, and how 
he was rebuked, 85-86 
and the censoring of U. S. 

naval mails, 88 
arrives in England, 83 
at a Savage Club dinner, 194 
author's relations with, 85 

Sinclair, Commander, 54 

Skrine, Lieutenant, Philip Con- 
nard's introduction to, 187 



313 



INDEX 



Sligo, a night in, 241 

Smith, Clifford, consulted by 

author, 171 
Smith, Sir F. E. (now Lord 

Birkenhead), in charge of 

Press Bureau, 20 
SparrowhawTc, loss of, 65 
Spee, Admiral von, and the 

Coronel battle, 31, 34 
Steed, H. Wickham, in a dilem- 
ma, 90 
Steel, Gerald, secretary to Sir 

Eric Geddes, 183 
Stevenson, Mr., visits the Fleet, 

95 
Stileraan, Admiral, and the 

Press, 85 
Stoddart, Rear-Admiral, off 

Brazilian coast, 43 
Stuart, Sir Campbell, Fleet 

visit of, 163 
Sturdee, Admiral Sir F. D., and 

Falklands battle, 36 
arrives at Port Stanley, 43 
Chief of Staff, 31 
Submarines in action, 191 
Sullivan, Lieut.-Commander 

Bertie as chaperon, 166 



Tate, Harry, an entertainment 
falls through, 232 

Times, the, represented at 
N.P.A. conference, 104 

Tipperary, loss of, 65 

Tirpitz, Admiral von, Lord 
Fisher's cable to, 32 

Tolstoy, M., visits the Fleet, 
157 

Tours, a salvage plant in, 267 
U. S. Supply Headquarters 
in, 267 

Trade Unionists visit the West- 
ern Front, 252 

Trye, Captain John H., Naval 
Advisor to Chief Censor, 
24 
cordial relations with au- 
thor, 207 

Tsing-tau, reduction of, 38 



Tuohy, James, Mr. Balfour's 

letter to, 138 
Turbulent, loss of, 65 
Turkey, armistice with, 188 

U-BOAT in action with *'Q" 

boat, 190 
United States destroyers arrive 

at Queenstown, 83, 140 
naval censorship, strictness 

of, 152 
pressmen and author, 84 

(See also American) 
Unwin, Captain, awarded the 

V.C, 173 
Urban, Charles, produces a 

naval film, 51 

Valentia, radio station at, 245 
Verdun, a visit to, 264 
Vimy Ridge visited, 251 
Vindictive, Muirhead Bone 's 

drawing of, 175 
Voysey, Miss, the ''Queen of 

Queenstown," 254 

Walcott, Commander, a lunch 
to artists, 181 
and Imperial War Museum 

committee, 171 
appointed liaison officer, 161 
as chaperon, 163, 166 

Walker, Lieutenant, and the 
Naval Photographic Ex- 
hibition, 100 

War finance, lectures on, 233 

War Trade Intelligence Depart- 
ment, the, 26 

Ward, Mrs. Humphry, visits 
Rosyth, 156 

Warlencourt visited, 249 

Warneford, Lieutenant, award- 
ed the V.C, 173 

Warrior disabled, 65 

Webb, Captain (now Rear-Ad- 
miral) Richard, tribute to, 
25 

Wells, H. G., author's inter- 
view with, 80 



314 



INDEX 



Wemyss, Admiral Sir Eosslyn, 
and a cinema outfit for 
Murmansk, 222 
and American journalists, 

137, 147 
visits American destroyer 

base, 253 
witnesses Armistice Day 
scenes, 278 

Western Tront, the, author's 
visit to, 248 et seq., 260 et 
seq. 

'* Western Front, The," publi- 
cation of, 174 

Westminster, Duke of, rescues 
Capt. Williams, 150 

Whitehall, how increased Ad- 
miralty staff was accom- 
modated in, 5 
{See also Admiralty) 

Wilkinson, Norman, a realistic 
picture by, 195 
goes to Gallipoli, 195 

William II., Emperor, decides 
to abdicate, 271-272 

Williams, Captain Gwatkin, cap- 
tivity and rescue of, 150 



Wilson, President, and enemy 
detention of Eear-Admiral 
and Mrs. Neeld, 32 
in Paris, 270 

Wireless and war news, 206 
et seq. 

Wireless Press, Limited, 208 

Wireless stations visited by 
author, 239 

Wireless Telegraph Censors, 24 

Wood, Martin, 172 

WylUe, W. L., as author, 121 

York, Archbishop of, visits 
the Grand Fleet, 154 

Zeebrugge and the censorship, 

106, 108 et seq, 
Zelee, sinking of, 38 
Zeppelin, a raid, and an in- 
cident in the Channel, 185 
brought down in the Thames, 

61 
destroyed off German coast, 

187 
falls in North Sea, 194-195 
{See also Air raids) 



315 



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